Whoever says that food retailing is not a “tough, rough business” should read this article, which appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently.
“The signs barring the carrying of concealed weapons inside Schnucks (a 90 store chain headquartered in St. Louis, MO with stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wisconsin) quietly came down earlier last month – more than six years after they first went up in the grocery chain’s Missouri stores following the passage of a state law allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons.”
Lori Willis, a Schnucks spokeswoman, said the company’s policy change came about during a routine review of its policies.
Schnucks has not barred weapons in four other states – Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, and Tennessee – where the company has stores and where there are concealed-carry laws on the books. And there haven’t been any problems in those states, she said.
“We decided to make the change in policy based on the idea that any customer who has a valid license to carry a concealed weapon should be allowed to do so,” Willis said. “It really seemed to us as if it were a non issue.”
The signs were removed without fanfare on June 1, 2010.
In 2003, the Missouri Legislature passed a law allowing residents with permits to carry concealed weapons, but court challenges delayed implementation until the following year. Under the law, private businesses were allowed to ban firearms on their premises. The law was greeted with a mixed response from retailers. Some, like Schnucks, decided to prohibit firearms in their stores.
So sales people who work in the Schnucks stores, be careful when a customer complains about a product or the service in the store!
If you’re a retailer in the Mid-Atlantic area, you might be interested in the Human Resources/Training and Development Conference FMI (Food Marketing Institute) is holding in Baltimore September 26-28, 2010 at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel.
The conference will, according to FMI, enhance professional partnerships and gain new insight on critical business issues, such as diversity management, compensation and benefits trends, development of workforce skills and leadership development. General sessions and workshops provide an opportunity to work with industry experts and peers to develop innovative approaches to human resources and training and development. Several structured forums for idea exchange are included in the program.
If you’re interested in this conference, contact the Food Marketing Institute at www.smartbrief.com/news/FMI/associationNews.jsp
The Network of Executive Women (NEW) will present ways for industry executives and their organizations to leverage today’s new business landscape at the NEW Leadership Summit 2010, September 27-29 in Charlotte, NC.
More than 700 executives are expected to attend the summit, which will feature a new format with three SuperSessions and keynote addresses by Lt. Col. Consuela Kickbusch, U.S. Army retired, futurist and author Edie Weiner, and a “generations at work” panel moderated by Fawn Germer.
The SuperSessions will focus on change issues affecting the industry. Session leaders will include Kevin Coupe, industry journalist and co-author of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons From The Movies, and Bill Fournet, generations and workforce expert.
For more information visit www.newonline.org.
The Mid-Atlantic Food, Beverage, and Lodging Expo, sponsored by the Restaurant Association of Maryland in partnership with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center October 6-7, 2010.
This annual trade show is the largest in the Mid-Atlantic region, attracting thousands of attendees and hundreds of exhibitors from New York to Florida.
For more information visit www.midatlanticexpo.com.
Kudos to former Giant/Landover president Pete Manos who last month was written up in the Bosworth Bulletin, the “VOICE” of Benjamin Franklin University Alumni Association.
The Bulletin was distributed at the 50th annual luncheon for the alumni of the university. It was quite an honor for Pete to be featured in that publication. Pete is one the distinguished business leaders in the Mid-Atlantic to have graduated from BFU.
For the many food sales people who travel to and from points all over the country from BWI every week, there is a new restaurant at the BWI Marriott for those who spend overnights in Baltimore-Washington, Chesapeake, which is named after and offers cuisine of the region. Chesapeake is a “seafood lover’s dream” and offers an upscale casual dining establishment.
Located just a few steps from the hotel’s lobby, the restaurant is a modern American bar and grill, featuring Eastern Shore decor including a floor-to-ceiling mural of the Chesapeake River. Chesapeake also features a number of local ales and an impressive wine list.
We were saddened to learn at presstime of the sudden death of Elliott Friedman. Elliott was known to many in the food industry of the Mid-Atlantic and throughout the East Coast. He worked many years in frozen food for Giant/Landover and then for a frozen distributor in Florida. He returned to the Mid-Atlantic and became associated with Burris Retail Logistics where he remained until his retirement. Elliott was a member of Maryland’s Food Industry Hall of Fame. Upon retirement from Burris he became very active in his synagogue on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We extend our sympathies to his wife Elaine and his family. Elliott was a good friend to all who knew him, he will be missed.
We learned recently of the death of Douglas M. Mox, a food broker and baseball umpire who died last month of multiple organ failure at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
He was the son of a Baltimore police officer who was born in Baltimore and spent his early years in Morrell Park.
During the early 1970s and 1980s, he worked as a sous chef and kitchen manager at King’s Contrivance in Columbia and later at the old Country Fare Inn in Reisterstown and the former Caper’s in Annapolis.
From 1987 to 2005, he was a food broker with Key Impact Sales in Odenton, and since 2005 had been employed by RPA Inc. of Owings Mills.
He also had worked part time as a supervising chef for Ridgewell Caterers in Bethesda and Linwoods Restaurant and Catering in Owings Mills, MD.
Mr. Mox began umpiring in 1994 with the Arbutus Little League, and after his son moved onto senior baseball, he continued officiating Little League games.
He also umpired minors, majors, juniors and seniors games in the Maryland district and Maryland state tournaments, as well as tournament games in New Jersey and Delaware.
He was 52.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday, October 23, 2010, the date of The Children’s Cancer Foundation Celebrity Ball.
The honoree is Robin Michel, president of Gian/Landover. The event will take place at Valley Mansion by Martins. For more information call 410-486-4744.
Birthday greetings go out this month to: Michele Muckle, daughter of Safeway’s Craig and Yolanda Muckle; Nestle’s Anthony McPhail; Integrity Food Marketing’s Bob Gossweiler; the owner of America’s largest chain of Laundromats, Michael Finkelstein; Jim and Jacqueline Ukrop, formerly of Ukrop’s; retired Box’n Save’s John Sieglein; Solomon enterprises’ Esther Solomon; Sherry Rich, wife of International Food and Beverage (IFB) president, Frank Rich; and Bernadette Quinn, wife of La Famiglia mixologist Burt Quinn.
Celebrating anniversaries are: Michael and Linda Hughes, Hughes Sales, their 17th;; retired Box’n Save’s John and Penny Sieglein, their 42nd; and Pete and Barbara Manos, Giant Food retired; their 50th on July 16.
You can e-mail dick Bestany at: [email protected]