Bush’s Path to Parker’s Presidency Started in a Classroom

Parker’s Kitchen President Jeff Bush had no way of knowing that inviting Greg Parker to speak to his economics class at Armstrong State University, now Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah, would lead to a new career.

An economics major with experience as an entrepreneur as well as a soldier in the Army, Bush was president of the Economics Association at Armstrong and was charged with finding a guest speaker for the semester. Bush knew of Greg Parker because of his businesses in the area—not only Parker’s convenience stores but a portfolio of area companies which, at the time, included laundromats, self-storage facilities and car washes. With all those businesses, Bush felt that Parker probably would have a lot of insights to share—if he would agree to come and speak, and Bush thought that was a long shot.

But Parker agreed to come and speak to the group of 150-200 students; he is a firm believer in education, as Bush would later learn. But before Parker started his remarks, he told the class that he wanted them to interrupt him if they had questions. “I’d rather answer questions than tell you about me.”

But no one was raising their hand, so Bush did. He asked questions and made comments for the rest of the talk.

Parker was intrigued by this student who asked good questions and had intelligent things to say, so he found Bush after class and started asking him questions. He asked Bush to come to the Parker’s office and interview and, at the end of the interview that summer, Parker asked Bush if he would like an internship at Parker’s. Bush explained his situation, that he was fresh out of the Army and had a wife and two children and was trying to finish his degree quickly. Parker told him to let him know if things changed.

But Parker again reached out to Bush over winter break, via email. Bush and his family had been back home in Delaware to visit, so he had missed the email. There also were later emails from others, like the president of the university, who urged Bush to call Parker as soon as possible. It was 10 at night, but he went ahead and called Parker, who answered right away and asked Bush to come in at 6:30 the next morning.

He did, and they spent the day together. The day included meeting the mayor of Savannah, city councilmen, architects and others. It was, Bush later found out, his job interview.

Parker again offered him a job, and this time Bush told him he wanted to run it by one of his mentors before he made a decision.

The mentor told him, “Say yes. It’s Greg Parker and it’s Parker’s. Anybody and everybody wants to work at Parker’s.”

So, he said yes. He started as director of fuel management in December 2012 and about six years later became president, in January 2019.

“I am just beyond appreciative of everything Greg has done for me,” Bush said.

Knowledge shared freely

While the convenience store business is very complex, with a lot to learn in every area, Bush said colleagues at Parker’s have been his greatest teachers. And there is a lot of knowledge there because many of them have been with Parker’s for decades.

“It’s unbelievable how many people say, ‘This was my first job,’” Bush said. Talking to people who have been there 20, 30, 40 years is not unusual.

And it’s not just corporate employees; there are storelevel employees who also have been with Parker’s for decades. Bush told of a Parker’s Kitchen manager who has been with the company for more than 20 years and has been instrumental in the development of several of the retailer’s signature recipes.

“That’s another one of our pieces of magic,” Bush said. “When we are trying to solve a problem, nine times out of 10, we know the solution’s internal. We know that our employees are out there doing things in a way that we believe is the right way and we’ve just got to go find it.

“This is a company that rewards you for raising your hand and asking for a chance,” added Bush, who is 33 years old. He took on the president title from Greg Parker, who remains CEO.

Bush has always been an achiever. The oldest of seven boys, he started his first business when he was 14 years old and went on to start two more as a teen in Delaware. His

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“serial entrepreneur” lifestyle was interrupted, however, by 9/11. He comes from a military family, and he felt “this internal calling that I’ve got to go join the military.”

He sold everything and joined the Army. The military was a good fit for him, Bush said, as there was a set path for moving up the ranks. He applied himself to that process, “pushing the boundaries of how fast you could get promoted,” he said.

He served two tours in Iraq; the first was 16 months, during which he was injured in the line of duty; the second was cut short by a couple of months as he was accepted into the ROTC program at Armstrong and needed to be back in Savannah. He was stationed at nearby Fort Stewart, so he already had a house in the Savannah area. (Incidentally, his last promotion before he left the Army came from General David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

At Parker’s, Bush took on the challenge of learning the business from the ground up.

“I was trying to wrap my mind around all this stuff, and people were saying words that I had no idea what they meant,” he said. But he asked a lot of questions of Greg Parker and other colleagues, which helped him “slowly but surely chip away at things.”

Bush would take on the challenge of figuring out solutions to problems, even while learning the business. Parker, he said, “will empower you beyond belief and give you an opportunity to tackle something. So, that’s how it all started for me; I was just consistently raising my hand.”

When an opportunity came for him to move into operations from fuel, he said yes, even though people cautioned him it was the most difficult part of the business.

He learned operations by working in a store.

“Over about an eight-month period, I worked in a store, went through our management program, went through our district manager program to understand what takes place in the store, how it works,” Bush said. His fearlessness to take on any challenge was rewarded when Parker named him president.

“That it’s only been just over seven years is mind-bending,” Bush said in December. “But it’s a testament to Greg and the culture of this company. There’s not a person here who doesn’t have a fascinating story not only of how they got hired but how they arrived at the position where they are now.”

Employees have a voice

While the easy way to run a company is to make rules in the corporate office that are set in stone, that’s not the Parker’s way, Bush said.

“When an employee feels like they are impacting the company, it’s easy for you as a company to continue to elevate yourself,” he said.

Because Parker’s is open to their feedback, employees “are constantly giving us ideas and feedback and they are driving results. Our job is to continue to ensure that our employee voice is strong. We do that by getting feedback from the employees and then we implement that feedback,” Bush said. “We don’t just hear it. If the employees want to change something, let’s change it because they are running the show; we’re just here to support them.

“Whether it’s a new shirt or new shoes or the way we operate our POS system, whatever it is, we know that that person who is using it at the end of the day or wearing it at the end of the day has to be the one that is pleased. We trust in our employees and we know that it’s definitely not the easy way. The easy way is you sit in the ivory castle and you say this is what we are doing—go do it.”

A byproduct of employees having a voice is that they also have passion for Parker’s.

“No matter what position you are in this company, every single person here is a 24/7 employee. I know people often say that, but I’ll tell you, everyone here really is. It just speaks to just the passion they have for Parker’s,” Bush said. “Greg has built this culture that it evokes passion. We live it. We breathe it. And we love everything we do. The employees treat it just like it’s their business because Greg has allowed us to do that.”

When Parker’s opened seven stores in 132 days in 2019, Bush said that he and the operations team were working hand in hand, “literally minute by minute,” making sure everything was on track, from the actual construction to training new employees.

He said Parker’s has a great employee training program already, but he has challenged that department to make sure it’s the best program anywhere. That means easy-to-follow training guides for all pieces of equipment in the store, for instance.

Parker’s Market, also known as “Fancy Parker’s,” is located in downtown Savannah on the ground floor of a building that formerly housed Parker’s offices. The offices have since moved to an historic house a few blocks away, but it’s still close enough for Parker’s staff to grab lunch, dinner, a snack, beverage or treat.

Parker’s President Jeff Bush offered a tour of the compact but packed store, which offers gourmet prepared foods—hot foods as well as sandwiches, salads and more—plus coffee, soft drinks, wines, beers, bottled water and a wide variety of other beverages. It also features local merchandise, gifts, greeting cards and select packaged foods. It even sells fuel, which is a bit unusual in a downtown location.

As president, Bush’s day can involve any number of tasks, from fuel pricing to personnel to marketing, operations, loss prevention, IT and technology, real estate, etc.

With the company’s data capabilities, Bush is able to look at reports at any time and drill down as far as a single store transaction that is going on in real time.

He also makes a point to get out to Parker’s stores two full days a week, as the stores and their staff members form the core of Parker’s.

“I tell everybody it’s employees first, customer always. Anything we do needs to be with that mentality,” Bush said.

The Parker’s management team stays in touch through group texts, building “social capital,” as they call it.

“It’s so important for us to have internal social capital with each other and to make sure that we are bonded because if I have an interest in you personally, you have an interest in me, then if we are working on a project together I know where I can support you and you know where you can support me,” Bush said. “It’s important for us to understand each other and our strengths and weaknesses.

“Working at Parker’s is really working with a family.”

METTER, GEORGIA, PARKER’S OFFERS CHARGING FOR TESLAS, OTHER ELECTRIC CARS

Parker’s announced in early December that it had installed the first V3 Tesla charging site in Georgia, between Atlanta and Savannah in the town of Metter. The store, just off I-16 Exit 104 at 1118 S. Lewis Street, has eight Tesla Superchargers.

Several other Parker’s locations reportedly are in line to get chargers as well.

Parkers’s founder and CEO Greg Parker, himself a Tesla owner, noted that the Metter store offers the fastest Tesla charging station in America. The Tesla chargers complement two existing electric vehicle charging stations installed on-site by Georgia Power.

“We think we can charge any electric vehicle at our Metter store,” he said. “The new Tesla Superchargers offer a tremendous benefit for Parker’s customers and for anyone traveling along the I-16 corridor in a Tesla vehicle.”

Interestingly, stores don’t actually make money from offering the vehicle charging service; they pay for it. For every Tesla charged, Parker’s pays Tesla $1.

The question is, do in-store sales make up for what is paid out? Parker, who likes to make his decisions based on real data, said there’s no way to know what Tesla charger users are buying, if anything, in store. But one thing he does know is that “the electrification of the transportation of America is happening. It’s going to happen, so we have to be smart and we have to know how to prepare for the future.”

That’s yet another reason Parker’s is focusing on foodservice, he added—to cover fuel sales that are going to go away as more people purchase electric cars.

Parker’s President Jeff Bush said, “We recognize the shifting fuel demands of our customers and always strive to meet those demands. As a larger percentage of our customers begin driving electric vehicles, we want to provide them with a state-of-the-art charging infrastructure at strategic Parker’s locations.”

Tesla drivers who stop at Parker’s for a charge will spend 28 minutes there if they want a full charge, giving them enough time to enjoy a meal, snack and/ or beverage. But it remains to be seen whether they will do so or not, as wealthier customers are less likely to spend money in convenience stores than other consumers.