In the middle of June, I traveled to central New York. I hadn’t been back since I relocated to Naples, Fla. more than a year ago.
There were a number of reasons for the visit, most of them prosaic, but what was very much center of mind for me was checking on the feelings of those who had worked for Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes through one company sale and who were now facing another corporate deal—complete with loss of jobs.
I was ready to write a rip-snorter of a column before I left, tearing everyone involved in the sale to shreds. I came back to Naples with a different feeling. There are many feelings, actually, and I haven’t totally sorted them out.
Before the trip, I had read many sad posts on Facebook, complete with teary-faced icons, from former employees and colleagues, stating they had been told by Alimentation Couche-Tard that they were “day one” employees—gone the day the sale was complete. This, after everything we had done to protect these people and their positions during the sale to CST Brands.
To clarify, San Antonio-based CST Brands, which acquired my old company, Nice N Easy, is now being acquired by Couche-Tard.
Another concern was that the last of the stores carrying the Nice N Easy name—the original corporate stores—would have those signs with that locally-venerated name taken down. Again, another concession by CST and one that was very important to John MacDougall that is being lost in the sale to Couche-Tard.
COME AND GONE
Let me say this. I’m not sorry the signs are coming down. Without founder John MacDougall and Peter Tamburro and I, it wasn’t the same company. Everyone who stayed and worked so hard to preserve the spirit we instilled in the company should be complimented and thanked profusely. They carried on the best they could, providing excellent customer service and honoring the brand.
But it’s over, and it might have been a misguided plan from the start. What made our company special was the care it received from those of us who actually lived in the community. Everything received immediate attention. Without that, and with the senior leadership missing, the true sense of who we were was running on centrifugal force and, eventually, would come to a halt.
People I talked to in the stores and in what was left of our office were resigned to what would be occurring in a couple weeks, but they felt they had been treated fairly. Most were anxious to move on, having worked in what felt like a state of suspended animation for the better part of a year. Rumors swirled about CST from almost the day they finalized our purchase. The sense of disquiet was palpable for a group of people used to stability for 35 years.
I sometimes wonder if those who buy and sell companies and those who report the rumors behind the news understand the emotional toll that takes on people who work in the management of those companies. I sense they do not.
I do know that it was time to put this to an end and allow these people and the communities, themselves, to move on with new stores, new management, and a new sense of purpose, however different that might be from ‘Be Nice, Sell Stuff, Have Fun and Be the Best.’
I want to thank Kim Lubel, CEO and president, and the folks at CST for keeping their word to the MacDougall family and for trying something that could have worked well and provided a new way for developing a best practices company if only given more time.
My advice to Couche-Tard would be to remember that our stores were built in some very small towns, where we were both the grocery store and local restaurant. We saved our customers many miles of travel, hours of time and actual dollars by building our stores to suit their needs.
If you replace them with a corporate “one size fits all” Circle K concept, you will be doing them a disservice. I hope that still means something.
I think I’ve learned something here, also. It’s time to let this all go. We all did the best we could. Remember it fondly, but move on to something new.
Who knows, it could be better.