Award winning grocer reflects on career
With a dozen successful food stores to his credit, it’s hard to believe Tom Jamieson entered the business as an outlaw butcher. “I started out on weekends helping my father who was a meat cutter,’ the 49-year-old grocery store owner said. “That was 35 years ago. I suppose I was illegally cutting meat back then,’ he joked, something he would never permit anyone to do in his stores today.
Jamieson Family Foods, of which he and his wife Debbie are owners, has nine Shop ‘n Save and three Save-A-Lot grocery stores in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
In March, the Pittsburgh Association of Manufacturers Representatives (PAMR) named Jamieson Retailer of the Year among businessmen in eastern Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Jamieson, saying he keeps “fairly to myself’ and that he doesn’t often accept awards, said he did this one more for his father, Bob, than for himself.
“Dad’s getting older so I really accepted it in his behalf,’ he said. Which is fitting since it was his father who got him involved in the grocery business in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio.
“This was something I always wanted to do. I didn’t care a lot for school. I enjoyed cutting meat,’ Jamieson said. His educators were mentors in the retail grocery industry, some of whom he met and talked to while caddying for them at a local golf course. “I learned from them. I took their advice. I worked hard. I was working 50 hours a week right out of high school,’ he said.
By 21, he was manager of the meat department at the RB Market in Cortland, Ohio. He learned every inch of the retail grocery business, holding manager posts in other departments.
His career has taken him from Ohio to West Virginia and Pennsylvania and ultimately to found his own grocery store chain.
He employs from 900 to 1,000 people at his 12 stores. Some 300 work at his Fayette County sites. About 10 percent of his workers at all of his stores are department managers.
In January he opened a new store in Waynesburg and last summer moved a Shop ‘n Save into the former Montgomery Ward store at Laurel Mall on Route 119 north of Uniontown.
“That store is doing very well. I always liked that location. My goal is to be within an hour of home and my stores,’ the Uniontown resident said.
His next goal is to replace the Shop ‘n Save at Cherry Tree Plaza. “Our whole focus is to acquire property,’ he said, adding that he has promised his staff there “for the past two years that I was going to do something about this site.’
The building in Uniontown has been damaged by pyrite, a natural mineral found in some strata, swelling in ground under the store.
“I want to provide job security for the 100 people I have here. But finding the ‘right’ property is tough sometimes,’ he said.
Although he continues to put in 70 hours, six-days-a-week, Jamieson said the grocery business has been very good.
“There have been some major changes and challenges,’ he added. “My goal has always been to be the store of choice in any area I have moved into.’
However, he admits that goal has become “the store of second choice’ when he is in a market where Wal-Mart operates a grocery store.
“You can’t compete with Wal-Mart. They can cut their pricing and keep it low as long as they want. They are the biggest retailer in the world and they have become very efficient.’
He suggested that local governments halt the practice of passing out tax breaks to new stores like Wal-Mart as an incentive for them to locate here “because they are putting people out of business who were paying the taxes.’
Despite that challenge, Jamieson is following through on a plan he set for himself more than three decades ago.
“I listened to the advice I got,’ he said. He singles out one man during his early days, Henry Nemenz, who owned food stores in Ohio. “He was a phenomenal person who taught me much of what I know.’ Jamieson said Nemenz was creative, innovative and “taught me that the supermarket business is more than just selling groceries.’
But Jamieson’s plan then didn’t include owning stores. Several years passed and he decided it was time for a change. “I asked Henry if it would be all right if I sent out some resumes to (grocery) wholesalers. That’s how I came to Super Value in Greensburg.’
He worked there as a supervisor for retail customers. The major change was in the amount of time he spent on the job each week.
“To go from retail to wholesale is a whole lot different. I had been working nearly every day, holidays, all kinds of hours and I went to a Monday-through-Friday, 8-to-5 job.’
Family circumstances, he said, pushed him to search for ways to get more income. That led to a partnership in operating some stores in West Virginia and ultimately to owning his own stores.
“That has been my mission. To get into a position where I can take care of my family’s needs.’ He and his wife have four daughters: Julie, a teacher; Cara, a college student; Shaina, in high school, and Taylor, in grade school.
“Shaina has shown interest in the stores. She works during summer and had worked during school. But she is getting busy with other things,’ he said.
Jamieson also credits his success to his employees. “Without the staff I have I would never have been able to grow,’ he said. He emphasizes training and offers ways for his employees to advance in his company. By opening stores, he creates new manager positions.
“I have always had a staff trained and ready to go on the system I use. If you don’t have a staff that knows how you operate and your system, it’s tough. I promote from within, moving the people up the ladder.’
He worries about ensuring their jobs as well, speaking often of how important it will be to keep the business profitable and progressive.
“We focus on fresh foods so we can become the store of choice. That means job security for the employees, many who have been with me since the beginning.
“You have to compete with restaurants so you have to emphasize fresh foods. Today, I think half the customers don’t know how to cook,’ he quipped.
Some of the most dramatic changes in his business, he said, have occurred in the meat department. Where once butchers would carve out the different cuts from sides of beef, “everything comes in pre-cut. Butchering is becoming a lost art. I have 21 people we have taken up through the ranks and trained to be meat cutters. The meat business as a whole has gone down. Delis will continue to grow, to get bigger and bigger. And now everyone is selling groceries. So this has become a very, very competitive business.’
Profit margins, he said, have declined over the years, necessitating looking for more creative product lines and ways of doing business. Jamieson has spent a good deal of time in recent years adding dollar item sections to his stores and taking some of the older sites and rehabilitating them.
“You have to watch your operational costs. You have to make sure you turn off the lights when the store is closed. You can’t waste anything.’
His program for his employees appears to be successful. Of his 12 stores, only one is represented by a union.
“I decided a long time ago to let the employees decide if they wanted to be union or not. That’s up to them. I have always had good workers here. Our blessing is that we continue to grow and promote from within.’
Starting wages, he added, are above minimum wage and managers are paid annual bonuses.
He also hopes to start selling some of his stores to managers who have proven ability.
“I’m 49 now and by 55 I’d like to start backing out of this. I hope to turn some of the West Virginia stores over to managers, to work with them and be their bank, so to speak. I have some real good managers in West Virginia and Pennsylvania,’ he said.