Customer service reigns supreme at Stew Leonard's, a micro-chain of fresh-food stores within a stone's throw of New York City in suburban and exurban New York and Connecticut. Operating in a realm where the customer is right even when she's wrong, this third-generation family business has blossomed from a small dairy store founded in 1969 that carried just eight items and had seven employees into a four-store operation carrying 2,000 items with annual sales of $400 million, nearly 2,000 employees and a ten-year run on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America," a who's who of employee-centric businesses.
The stores themselves are equal parts spectator sport and foodie delight, a carefully calculated labyrinth of aisles and switchbacks designed to funnel shoppers past a cornucopia of fresh baked goods, produce, meats and fish, dairy products, deli foods, freshly prepared food and food sampling stations.
With their petting zoos, characters costumed as barnyard animals and whimsical animatronics displays, an environment that prompted The New York Times to dub it the "Disneyland of Dairy stores," Stew Leonard's does not lend itself to hit-and-run shopping.
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