Like many of his colleagues, Russell Blais started working in the grocery industry as a teenager. After quickly moving up through the ranks from managing the deli and meat departments to managing the frozen foods and dairy departments, he was promoted to assistant store manager at the young age of 19.
Clearly an impressive employee who caught upper management’s eye, Blais believed what many 18-year-olds tend to believe: “I thought I was all-powerful and in charge,” he said.
However, one night when tasked with closing the store, he walked by a brazen employee at the store’s courtesy counter and heard her refer to him with a derogatory nickname.
“I confronted her and said, ‘Tell me what you mean,’ and she said, ‘You know, you don’t have to be a (jerk) every time you talk to somebody and give them directions,” Blais said. “That stuck with me, and it changed how I operate and deal with people. I didn’t think I was being mean, but I guess their perception was that I was, so I took a hard look at that and I changed my style.”
In fact, Blais made such a 180-degree change in his management style that, years later, as a store manager for Whole Foods Market, he had employees request to relocate their families from his previous store in Providence, R.I., to his then newly assigned store in Philadelphia so that they could continue to work with him.
“That was really nice — incredibly moving,” Blais said.
This year, as store manager of Roche Bros. Marketplace in Duxbury, Mass., Blais’s leadership style has been recognized with a Store Manager Award from FMI—The Food Industry Association. In their 20th year, the FMI Store Manager Awards honor outstanding managers who demonstrate team leadership, effectively communicate company and store goals and objectives, offer exceptional customer service and improve community relations.
Rising above the tide
A popular store located in a New England coastal town, Brothers Marketplace’s Duxbury location serves both area residents and the thousands of tourists who visit the beach and boating community each summer. Blais is known for turning the store into a destination hotspot in and of itself, boosting store traffic from 70,000 to 90,000 weekly visitors each summer by offering grab-and-go options and strategically merchandising the store so that busy shoppers can easily access the most popular items without having to wait in long lines.
“I’m patting my own back and I don’t do that very much but the store that I operate right now I think is one of the nicest grocery stores in the country,” said Blais, who drives over an hour one way to get to the store every day. “I’ve been to many, many stores across the entire United States, and I would put my current store up against any store in the country. The visual merchandising every day is just outstanding. The layout of the store is great. It’s my favorite store that I’ve ever operated. That’s one of the reasons I don’t mind spending three hours on the road every day.”
From confrontation to connection
Blais also prioritizes employee well-being by offering mental health classes, mentoring and supporting employee advancement.
“I think the most rewarding thing is working with people – training them and seeing people grow and move into different positions,” Blais said, noting one current employee, in particular, who has advanced within his store over the last six years.
“Elaine, my bakery manager, started as a bakery associate and worked the café and coffee counter, and over the years, she started learning different things,” he said. “She got promoted to the (bakery) assistant manager and, then, about six or seven months ago, she got promoted to bakery manager. I just watched her learn different things over the last six years and watched her grow into this role that she’s in now. Seeing employees move up and creating management staff for the companies that I work for is very rewarding to me.”
It’s no surprise, then, that people are what Blais sees as the industry’s most valuable asset – now and in the years to come.
“I know there’s a lot of different technology coming out, but people still need to work those things,” Blais said. “I don’t necessarily see technology changing my role all that much, quite frankly.”
No two days are alike — but most of them are fun
Though it’s rewarding, Blais acknowledges that managing a grocery store is hard work.
“It’s not for everybody,” he said. “You know, you work a lot of crazy hours – you work weekends, you miss a lot of family time and things, but if you really like it, it’s fun. You get to do different things every single day. One of my favorite things to do is to work with people, but I also really enjoy visual merchandising. I love doing those things, and it’s just fun for me. Every day is not the same.”
Despite his drastic change in management style, Blais still makes it a point to address areas where employees need improvement – he just does so with a different mindset.
“I’m going to tell you the good things and the bad things, but if I’m telling you the bad things, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I think you’re doing a bad job. It’s just information you need to hear to improve,” Blais said. “The difference is now, versus when I started out, I make sure I am nice and that I give people the benefit of the doubt. I had to learn to have a little more patience with people and learn that not everyone has the same work ethic – this person’s 100% is not the same as someone else’s 100% and you need to know that.”
This is the second installment in a series of spotlights on FMI — The Food Industry Association’s 2025 Store Manager Award winners. Click below to read the profile of another 2025 winner, as well as features on each of the 2024 award winners:
- Award-winning grocery store manager shares what does — and doesn’t — lead to success
- Q&A: A day in the life of an award-winning grocery store manager
- The Fresh Market leader shares lessons learned from stock boy to store manager
- How a co-op grocery store manager brings Seattle’s diverse community together
- Inspirational speeches, funny uniform inscriptions part of store manager’s motivational toolkit
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