2021 Retailer of the Year

From page 36

The Bake Shoppe operates 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, with limited scheduling on weekends. The Bake Shoppe has a very diverse workforce and works together, every day, to produce a quality product for the stores.

Call center

Behind most companies are voices to help, which is where this grocer’s call center comes in.

The team still operates from the New Hope, Minnesota, location and supports both online and in-store guest expe riences across Coborn’s, CashWise, Marketplace Foods and Hornbacher’s stores.

Customer phone calls, primar ily about e-commerce orders, as well as email responses to shoppers, social media monitoring and responses and online reviews are fielded by trained specialists.

The call center is the centralized hub for most customer outreach, assisting with online account activation, e-commerce orders, curbside and delivery order fulfillment, just to name a few. This operation is staffed from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekends.

“The call center is instrumental in supporting the company and our guests as more and more households adopt grocery shopping online as a way of life,” the book reads.

“The team’s commitment to solving servicerelated questions, one guest at a time, is what makes them remarkable.”

Technology and opportunity

Coborn’s prides their grocery stores for having come a long way. “What started as a small general store stocked with produce has grown into a large supermarket, fuel, liquor and convenience operation and a highly respected leader in the industry,” the story reads. “Today, our locations are practically warehouses that require significant technology infrastructure to operate in the 21st century.”

Once Coborn’s started deploying personal computers, receiving and item file management software for tracking product receipts, costs and retails made product management much more efficient.

Before their first IBM PC AT, Coborn’s was dependent on what suppliers recommended for pricing. “With this new technology, managers had more control of pricing. In the mid-1980s, accounting wanted programming that would aid in their management on the company’s financial reporting.”

The information technology continues to evolve and play a critical role in how Coborn’s, Inc., operates. The I.T. department has transformed from a one-employee operation to a department of 52 professionals that handle issues every day, from computer glitches to a 24/7 help desk that assists store associates, distribution, call center and corporate employees through a multitude of technology issues at any given moment.

Long-tenured employees can be found throughout the various departments. In fact, many workers have been with the company for decades. As of May 2013, according to the history book, nearly 1,300 employees had been with Coborn’s for at

Such loyal service presents opportunities for career development. The Leadership Enrichment and Acceleration Program has aided Mary Kruck, Cooper Ave. store director, and Sarah Putnam, director of operations. Both began at the associate level and now reflect the diversification of leadership in the retail grocery industry.

“To see where we’ve come now in that strength of female leadership, it’s pretty cool,” Kruck said. In the bigger picture, COO Dave Meyer spoke to a structure that infuses not only goal setting, but accountability and communication.

“It all starts with having that playbook that everybody knows what page you’re on, right? Communication, because until it gets to the newest employee of the company, we can’t be as successful as we will be,” Meyer said.