New Food Pavilion manager seeks success

Hunt aims to make store like family for customers

MOSES LAKE -As her store's parent company emerges from bankruptcy, new Food Pavilion manager Lisa Hunt has high hopes for the future.

Hunt became the new manager in September 2007.

She grew up in the Moses Lake area, and returned to be near family for several months before she got the position.

"Actually, I just applied and I didn't think I got it, because it took them quite a while to give me a call," she said.

After interviews over the phone and in person, Hunt went through training. In her discussions with a Brown and Cole, Inc. vice president about the company, Hunt found the "people aspect" to be the most appealing part of the new job.

"They care about the people. They take care of their employees and they wanted a manager who would do that," she said. "The dollars will follow once you have good people and they're taken care of."

Hunt hopes to make the store become more like family.

"We already are a lot like family. I kind of came into a family already, which is good and bad," she said. "Because you know how families are, it's really hard to have someone new come in, but it's actually been really good. And not just family within the store, but family for our customers."

Hunt said she wants customers to have a place to go where people know their name, recognize them and remember helping them the last time.

Since her arrival, Hunt said the store has been cleaned up and "decluttered" through corporate direction.

"We have some really great people who work here and we're just trying to become the best we can," she said. "We've made some moves within the store, we have some resets that are coming up, moving product around to make more sense, basically."

Throughout the next year, the store will be trying some new events and new excitement.

"Just trying to make it a little bit more fun than just a grocery store," Hunt noted. "Hopefully (people) can expect really great customer service. We've really been focusing on that. Just a willingness to help them if they are looking for a certain product. Our goal is to have every product on the shelf be full at all times. There's never a time when someone comes in where we just don't have the product, is what we're working towards."

The store is currently in the process of resetting its produce department and rearranging some aisles around, Hunt said.

It's Hunt's first actual store manager position, she said.

"I think a success for me would be that every single one of the employees here would come to work every day not dreading their job, and not fearful of the manager, and the customers come away with a smile," she said. "That would be a personal success for me."

Hunt extended thanks to the Food Pavilion customer base for remaining loyal during what she called "some tough times," referring to Brown and Cole Stores, Inc. filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2006. The company emerged from Chapter 11 in December 2007.

"Our company went through a lot in a year, we're now back on our feet and we're going strong," she said. "I want to thank the employees for everything they've done, even since these last few months I've been here, and everything they're continuing to do for the store."