Boom. Bang. Wegmans.

I used to dread going grocery shopping. Actually, I take that back; I kind of still do. I simply can’t tolerate walking around in stores for long periods of time! I can’t! And, no matter how much I know that I don’t like it and that I, ironically, know people who are legends in the field of taking forever to go food shopping, I always agree to tag along. Why? I have no clue. Still, I think that many of us have been through a similar, if not the same, situation:
Your parents say that they’re going to get a “few” items from the store, and they even have a “small” grocery list. A brief outing to fetch a gallon of milk (the 2% kind), wheat bread, and paper towels can easily turn into two hours’ worth of shopping.  ShopRite to Stop and Shop to Walmart to Kmart, you usually regret agreeing to go out at all! Even so, you might not mind it so much if you go shopping at an award-winning, awesome, diverse, successful, inclusive, empowering, purposeful, and valuable grocery store!

Where can you find such a place, you ask? (I didn’t even know ‘til recently).

 WEGMANS is that place, and they really are all over the country, so go! =)

Upon Team Rhymes with Orange’s commencement of their excursion, we were totally pumped to venture to Wegmans. Well, maybe not totally pumped, but we were certainly anxious as to what was to await us at a grocery store—in a good way. As I walked up to the automatic doors, the scent of freshly baked goods filled the air, customers were moving and grooving, and the staff members were doing their jobs with a smile. I simply knew that we were going to be in for a polished and informative session on the awesomeness of the family owned Wegmans.

In the first few moments of our experience at Wegmans, we met a worker named Karen. As our ever so kind hostess/ tour guide, Karen remains a highly skilled worker who works in whatever area of the store she is needed. She is just that good. Karen walked us around the aisles and gave us the play-by-play on how the successful business of Wegmans operates. The company checks “best if used by…” dates daily and keeps tabs on the pricing of the items, in hopes that they match up well with their circulars and other competing grocery stores. All of this is done to maintain the productivity of the company and keep it as Forbes’ 4th best out of 100 companies to work for. Go Wegmans!

Karen relayed to Team Rhymes with Orange that Wegmans has high standards and values. They do not sell cigarettes because that is simply not something that they want their brand associated with, no matter how much of a profit cigarettes could grant them. We were also informed that Wegmans does not have your everyday training when it comes to working for and with them. They have “universities”. Universities are the different departments of the store that the workers are trained under. For example, Karen was trained under the floral university. Even so, she also went to through the produce and fruits university, making her an efficient asset to the Wegmans team. All of the employees are trained in more than one area. This allows for the company to work as a team, and the customers can be served with the best information and convenience!

 A GROOVY FYI: In the cheese university, there are over 7,000 cheeses to learn about! Not a single person on his or her own can possibly know all 7,000, but as a university, business, team, and family, they can! =)

Wegmans also creates an inclusive space for the workers. They all wear name tags that sport… well, their names. Nothing else is shown on the name tags, just the name of the person. The business does not mention titles or positions on the name tags because they are not about a hierarchy, so there is not a reason for the positions to be displayed. They are about a cohesive team. Moreover, the executives visit the stores often, and this is not as a check up on the workers. It is simply to see if any help can be lent from them. If the executives see a spill, they do not call on the janitorial staff. They clean up the mess themselves. HOW COOL IS THAT!!?

Wegmans invites empowering, committed, and goal oriented workers into their stores. The company values their beliefs and purpose, and they will not stray aware from those aspects of their stores. It is because of their purposes to satisfy customers and create an atmosphere that is welcoming for customers and staff that have made them a prominent store in America, such a store that has survived and thrived in the economic hardships of the country. These purposes are kept in the minds of all of the workers, aiming all of them towards a common goal!

For the fun part (I'm totally serious), this all ties in perfectly with Rutgers NSO! There are so many parallels between Wegmans and NSO. We really do value the idea of a reverse hierarchy, and I think that is fantastic because as a team of leaders, we want cohesion and an open forum for everyone to put forth their best for the good of the incoming students (This is just like how Wegmans longs to put forth their best for the customers). Not to mention, as Orientation Leaders, we are going to have to take on roles that we aren't familiar with, similar to how Karen works in produce even though she was first trained in the floral department. We can depend on each other, and make the most of each others' talents and strengths to reach the goal of acclimating incoming students to Rutgers.

As Orientation Leaders, we are going to have to keep in mind our core values and the ways that we thrive, empower one another, fulfill our purpose, process our experiences, keep our ethics in tact, while understanding the ethics of others, and include one another for the wellbeing of new students. With such a mindset, there couldn't possibly be any room for dreading orientation in the manner that some dread shopping! Duh! Go NSO!