Where will the grocery industry be in the near future?Chester Sideman and his wife Carmen got married 25 years ago. After they got married, they decided they didn't want to be the typical American worker who worked 9 to 5 and retired at age 55. They had always imagined running their own company and running it in the way they saw fit. After thinking long and hard, they decided to build a company from the era they came from. Since they came from the “hippie” era, they fell in love with the idea of running a grocery store that provided a healthy alternative to the grocery shopping experience. A few years after opening, Chester and Carmen began to notice a trend. They were seeing that their health food store was starting to gain popularity among the locals here in San Francisco, since many were from the same era. Seeing this, the couple decided they needed to branch out and take full advantage of their popularity. First they decided to expand into a nearby store that had gone out of business. With this additional space, they were able to triple their size and introduce a huge variety of products related to the store's theme. With these added dimensions, they also found they needed help with the day-to-day operations of running the store. That's why they hired Craig Premer. Craig was a food industry professional who had worked in the industry for years. He was also able to see the great potential of this store. After five years of Craig taking over running the store, he had implemented every idea he had to help build the grocery store. At this point, the store was doing great. Profit was double what it was before Craig got there, but it was starting to level off. Craig noticed this and spoke to Chester and Carmen.Craig: Chester, we need to reevaluate what you want from this store at this point. I understand that this store has done very well over the past few years, but with increased competition from stores like Whole Foods and Rainbow Grocery, I feel that changes need to be made. Chester: I know our profits are doing well and have started to stabilize, but do you think big changes are needed??
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