Reference no: EM132904320

Sanders Supermarkets: What Happened to Control?

Sanders Supermarkets operated 50 stores in the Midwest. Faced with significant challenges from Wal-Mart, Kroger and Meijer, and in an attempt to regain market share, the company had embarked on a program to do some renovation of its stores. Juan Sanchez was a store manager of Store #16. Three months ago, Sanchez was talking with his district manager, Norm Greenberg, about a major renovation in the grocery section of his store, but had heard no more about it. Finally, Greenberg called Sanchez to tell him about a meeting at the corporate main office that would be held to discuss his proposed renovation project.

The meeting was attended by Sanchez, Greenberg, management from corporate sales, the maintenance department, several district managers, and the corporate operations manager. At the end of the meeting, they generally agreed that Store #16 would be reorganized (called "reset" in the language of the maintenance department), including relocating various main aisles. The supervisor of the reset crew and the maintenance department were to submit final plans and a cost estimate a week later.

During his next visit to Store #16, Greenberg told Sanchez about the plans for his store. He said that not everything had been finalized and apparently failed to mention that part of the reset would include moving some of the aisles.

The next week, completed plans and cost were submitted and given final approval by the corporate operations manager. Since new shelving had to be ordered and schedules made, the supervisor of the reset crew and the construction supervisor would be assigning the job of putting the necessary paperwork into motion. Greenberg then called Sanchez and said, "The restart project for your store has been approved. We will be getting back to you later with more information."

A month later, Sanchez took a five-day vacation with his family. Normally, this would have been a great time, but he constantly thought about the frustrating work environment. The last day of his vacation, he sent Greenberg a text message asking about a starting date for the project.

Store #16 opened at 7 am daily and closed at 10 pm. When Sanchez arrived at the store at 6:30 a.m., on his first day back from vacation, he soon forgot about the project. He walked into the store to find three major problems: the frozen food case was broken down, the floor scrubber was malfunctioning, and the grinder in the meat department was not working. After some checking, he found that no maintenance calls had been made, because each of his two assistant store managers, Jane Oliver and Wally Weathers, thought that the other was going to do it. The floor scrubber had not been working for several days, the frozen food case had broken down the previous afternoon, and the meat grinder was not functioning.

"It doesn't pay to take five days off and spend time with your family," Sanchez pondered to himself as he headed toward his office. He called the maintenance department, explained what happened, and requested immediate help. While waiting for the maintenance person, Sanchez called Oliver and Weathers to talk with them about letting him and each other know about the problems and how to control them. "All it takes," he said, "is working together, communicating, and following up to be sure that our customers get the best possible service. We can't be out of merchandise, especially in the frozen food department. We have to make sure that when we are busy, as we will be this week, our customers aren't stepping alongside workers in the aisles."

About that time, Sanchez was called to his office. When he arrived, he was greeted by four carpenters and three laborers, who told him, "We just wanted to tell you that we are here and are ready to get started on the renovation project right away."

"How come it takes this many people to fix a frozen food case?" asked Sanchez.

"We're not here to fix a frozen food case," said one of the carpenters. "We're here to remove the shelving in the aisles and begin to reset your store."

"Today?" Questioned Sanchez. "Nobody told me that you guys were coming today. I can't have you moving aisles during the day. What are my customers going to do? I thought you would be doing the renovation project after hours."

Sanchez immediately called Greenberg, "Norm, why didn't you tell me you were going to start the reset project in my store today?"

"What," said Norm, "I wasn't notified either."

"Why wasn't I consulted by someone on this?" exclaimed Sanchez. "First of all, the first week of a month is always too busy a time for laborers to be working in the aisles of my store. Second, I thought this type of work would be done at night. Some of our other stores might be able to handle this in the daytime, but our customers will not tolerate this type of inconvenience."

"OK," said Greenberg, "it sounds like things are really out of control at your store right now. How can you fix this ?"

"Norm, don't you mean, how can we fix it?"

Questions for Discussion

1. Analyze Juan Sanchez's discussion with the two assistant store managers, particularly when he said that "all it takes is working together, communicating and follow through." Are these the only factors that Sanchezneeds to address, or does good supervision require something more? Discuss.
2. Review the chapter on resolving conflicts. What suggestions would you make to Sanchez to help him resolve the problems he is facing?
3. What should Greenberg and Sanchez do in regard to the immediate problem of the carpenters and laborers in the store?
4. Identify various places in this critical incident where members of Sanders Supermarkets' management team did not plan on how to control for the unexpected?
5. In Chapter 2, we define "Management is getting things done through others." How can Juan Sanchez better lead his two assistant store managers?
6. Food for Thought: "Would you like to work for Sanders Supermarkets?" Why or why not?