Remembering Mr. N.M. Cohen of Giant Food
Nehemiah Meir Cohen and Samuel Lehrman founded Giant Food in 1936 opening its first supermarket concept store on Georgia Avenue, NW. Mr. Cohen went by N.M., but for the vast majority of us who had the opportunity to know him he was, out of total respect, Mr. Cohen. He actually stepped away from active management in 1964 becoming Chairman of the BOD’s until 1977 when he was voted the honorary chairman and founder. Mr. Cohen passed away in 1984 at the age of 93 after being seriously injured in an automobile accident, but remained somewhat active visiting stores well into his 80’s.
This Baby Boomer had the honor and privilege of working with Giant, after college, from 1974-1988 during its “heyday” era being one of the first participants in a new and creative training initiative called Giant’s Career Development Program, a 5-step program, developing future General Managers (GM). The first step was that of a Retail Trainee which concentrated on front end management and genuine personalized customer service with an introduction to total store awareness; the second step after being nominated and going through an interview process was to become a Department Manager (either produce, delly, or grocery); the third step following the same process was to become an Assistant Manager; the fourth step after a District and Zone Manager recommendation, the taking of a test, and a 2-phase interview was to become a General Manager Trainee and an intensive 6-month closely monitored training schedule; leading to step five when you were assigned your first store as a General Manager (GM). At each phase you normally began in a small volume store, then a medium volume store, and finally a large volume store demonstrating success at each volume.
Giant was always extremely innovative and way ahead of the curve noting it was the first supermarket chain to completely implement the computer-assisted checkouts (scanners) by the late 1970’s and introduce plastic bags in all of its stores in the early 1980’s. It also removed pricing each item individually creating the Unit Price Shelf Label and the first Universal Product Codes (UPC’s).
Actually, I began working at Giant in the summer of 1969 as a part-time summer produce clerk at Giant #27 (VA Square), a store a number of years later I would be both the Assistant Manager and GM, after my junior year of high school. “Back in the day”, in order to get your “foot” in the Giant “door”, you needed to have contact or to know someone who could hopefully get you an interview which, in itself, was very difficult. Needless to say, I felt very lucky to have had the opportunity and was extremely fortunate to have been hired. One thing was for sure, once you were “in” and accepted having met their high standards, you were welcome to come back the following summers.
The produce department was a great department to stay in shape as the cases of produce were heavy and as a result, this big strapping lad had a daily workout helping him prepare for the ensuing football season representing Washington-Lee High School and being a General. Guess what, I’m still a General and will always be a General!
I always had “scale” duty which meant I would weigh the customer’s produce which was placed in paper bags and mark the cost of their purchase on the bag with a Listo grease pencil. Produce departments always seemed to have overages on their monthly inventories in this era and that’s probably due to weighed produce always costing a few pennies more than the scale called for which was a “trick of the trade” so to speak.
My shift was either early in the morning or late in the evening–both the least desirable. In the AM, I would have to set up the ice table where I cut and wrapped watermelon and stocked the hardware side of the department consisting of all the loose potatoes, onions, hard squash, and fresh greens by store opening then relegated to the “scale” for the rest of the shift. In the PM, of course, I was at the “scale” and, at closing, had to pull all the perishables off the counters in large hard plastic crates storing them in the cooler overnight until the next day.
While on the “scale”, in between weighing customer’s produce, I would work the bagged hardware counter which was located by the “scale”, wrap lettuce, bag oranges and grapefruit, or deal with packages of tomatoes or bags of potatoes where some of each had become rotten which was my least favorite thing to be assigned as both stunk terribly and the crud would get on your hands and over time cause them to crack open–whoopie!
A number of weeks during the summer, I would be assigned to other nearby stores as a relief for those going on vacation. Those stores loved me because they would save all the tasks they dreaded for when I arrived and could complete while I was on the “scale”.
I have digressed to put things in some perspective, so please allow me to share my favorite memory of Mr. Cohen. It was 1978 and I was the Produce Manager at one of highest volume produce departments in the chain at Giant #61 (Camp Washington) located where Routes 29 and 50 intersect in Fairfax County. The store itself was in the need of a remodel and was only an upper medium volume store, but for some reason the produce department was a boomer.
My produce staff was nearly thirty strong as the produce department “back in the day” was extremely labor intensive as you had to receive, store, rotate, trim, wrap, package, and process everything before displaying it on the counter for your customers to pick and choose from. We ordered daily receiving nine trucks/week–that would be one every day of the week and two on both Friday and Saturday. On the sales floor, we stacked it high and sold it cheap. It’s still hard to fathom today, but we received thousands of cases of produce each and every week at Giant #61!
Please keep in mind that Mr. Cohen was now in his late 80’s, but still got out and enjoyed occasionally visiting a store, especially, the produce department which was his favorite. The produce department was always “front and center” being the first department you would see upon entering a Giant Food.
For some unknown reason, Mr. Cohen often visited the produce department at Giant #61. Ed Best, the GM, was a bit on the “nervous” side anyway, but when we knew Mr. Cohen was coming for a visit he was completely “beside himself”. Fortunately, we got a “heads up” from his driver when they were on their way giving us the opportunity to “tidy up” in preparation for his visit.
Our produce departments at Giant Food were only allowed to place red ripe tomatoes on the counter and they could only be stacked two high. This was so the weight of the tomatoes would not bruise or damage those on the bottom. Due to the volume at Giant #61, we always had on hand more than 200 cases of tomatoes and an associate was assigned just to manage the ripening process of the tomatoes separating them from green to ripening and finally to ripe which were the ones we could display on the counter and we stacked our tomatoes much higher than policy allowed. Knowing Mr. Cohen was on the way, we would hurriedly reduce the tomatoes on display to meet the policy making doubly certain the remaining tomatoes met company standards.
Ed would nervously meet Mr. Cohen at the front of the store upon his arrival. Mr. Cohen was a very short man who wore extremely thick-lensed glasses and sported a philtrum mustache on his upper lip using a walking cane for some support. He always wore a black raincoat and black short-brimmed rain hat over his loose-fitting black suit, white dress shirt with a black bolo tie, and comfortable black tennis shoes with a smooth sole–his dress never varied whether it was 30 degrees or 90 degrees outside. Ed would take his raincoat and suit coat while his hat remained on his head.
It was at this point Mr. Cohen asked to see the Baby Boomer and tour the produce department. As I led him into the department, he would take his right hand and place it on my left elbow having his cane in his left-hand, shuffling as he walked, making a beeline for the tomatoes on display, fortunately, now only stacked two high. As we approached the display, Mr. Cohen told me how full, fresh, and colorful the department looked today and he was very proud of me knowing I would enjoy a long successful career at Giant. I let him know his words to me were greatly appreciated hoping I just wasn’t waiting for the “other shoe to drop”.
At the display of tomatoes, Mr. Cohen went on to say how important it was that they be stacked only two high (as I was thinking little did he know) so they wouldn’t bruise and be perfect for our customers to enjoy in a salad. He then moved the hook of his cane to the sleeve of his left arm and began examining the tomatoes individually commenting on how red, ripe, and beautiful they were when, suddenly, I felt immediate pressure on my left elbow which Mr. Cohen was now squeezing with his right hand. Now, in his left hand he held a tomato staring at it in a trance like state for what seemed like an eternity where I just realized the “other shoe had just dropped” seeing that the tomato had a small hole in it with a tremendous amount of juice was oozing from it.
Being at least a foot taller than Mr. Cohen, he finally looked up to me where, I swear, I saw a tear in his left eye, as he began to tell me how disappointed he was now that this beautiful tomato would never be enjoyed and would have to be thrown away resulting in a no sale–a complete loss.
His attention diverted back to the tomatoes as he was now on a mission to find the culprit which had damaged beyond redemption the tomato now in my right hand. I then heard Mr. Cohen blurt out, “Aha!”, as he pulled another tomato from the display. This one was red and ripe, but sported a potentially damaging sprout on top.
Feeling very proud, Mr. Cohen again, looking up at me, said that this tomato with the sprout evidently had punctured the tomato in my hand and I needed to take the time in order to teach all of my associates to be on the lookout for sprouts when restocking the tomato display so what he had discovered would never, ever happen again.
Now satisfied, he asked me to lead him back to the front of the store as he was ready to leave. As we approached Ed and Mr. Cohen’s driver, Mr. Cohen took a moment to compliment the department once again saying he was already looking forward to his next visit.
It’s experiences like this “back in the day” which exemplified the greatness of Giant! They made certain everything was in place to maintain nothing but the highest of standards and you always gleaned some tidbit along the way just as I did that day when Mr. Cohen provided me with a teaching moment.
Please take a moment to share one of your experiences.