Employees at Wegmans, an American chain, view working for a grocer a bit differently. Instead of viewing their job as a temporary setback on the way to a more illustrious career, many employees at Wegmans view working for the grocer as their career. And given Wegmans’s high profitability, it looks like the grocer will be around long enough to make such careers a reality for those who pursue them. Why is Wegmans so effective? One reason is its culture. The store’s immediate focus on fine foods quickly separated it from other grocers—a focus that is maintained by the company’s employees, many of whom are hired based on their interest in food. In 1950, Walter’s son, Robert, became president and immediately added a generous number of employee benefits such as profit sharing and medical coverage, completely paid for by the company. Robert’s son, Danny, is president of the company, and he has continued the Wegmans tradition of taking care of its employees. As a result, annual turnover at Wegmans for full-time employees is a mere 6 percent, compared with an industry average of 24 percent.
Maintaining a culture of driven, happy, and loyal employees who are eager to help one another is not easy. Wegmans carefully selects each employee, and growth is often slow and meticulous, with only two new stores opened each year. When a new store is opened, employees from existing stores are brought in to the new store to maintain the culture. Managers especially are ingrained in the Wegmans culture. More than half started working at Wegmans when they were teenagers. Employees at Wegmans are not selected based on intellectual ability or experience alone. “Just about everybody in the store has some genuine interest in food,” states Jeff Burris, a store supervisor. Those employees who do not express this interest may not fit in and are sometimes not hired.
1. Would you characterize Wegmans’s culture as strong or weak? Why? How is the strength of the culture at Wegmans likely to affect its employees, particularly new hires?
2. Wegmans attempts to maintain its core cultural values by hiring individuals who are passionate about the food industry and by staffing new stores partly with existing employees. What are some advantages and disadvantages of trying to impose a similar culture throughout different areas of a company?
3. What is the primary source of Wegmans’s culture, and what are some ways that it has been able to sustain itself?
4. How might stories and rituals play a role in maintaining Wegmans’s corporate culture?