J-E Editor
The success of any business in a small community comes down to customer service and community involvement, a fact that the new manger of the Providence Sureway is well aware of.
Nathan Everly has spent most of his life dealing with customer service. First he learned from his father, who is a supervisor with Food Giant, and then he learned it on the job. He expects to combine all of that experience into turning Sureway into a different store.
“I want to bring this store back to what it was when Dave Hendrickson was here,” Everly said. “He was always involved in the community, and I want us to do the same. I think that is very important for a business.”
Everly began his career at Marketplace in Madisonville, working his way up within the company. From there he moved to E.W. James and Sons in Princeton, where he served as the store manager until 2010, when changes in the local economy forced the business to close.
Since then Everly has been working with Coca-Cola.
“I love the grocery business,” he said. “I missed it. Working at Coke, the store managers were my customers. You don’t get to deal with the customers when your on the vendor side, and I enjoy dealing with them.”
In fact, when I arrived at Sureway to interview Everly for this article, he was on the floor, bagging groceries and talking with customers.
“That’s just how I am,” he said. “I want people to know who I am. If they have a problem with our store, I want them to know that they can come to me. If we have a problem, I want to fix it. If I don’t know about it, I can’t do that, so I want them to know who I am. I want us to get our customer service at Sureway up to par.”
The first item of business, according to Everly, is cleaning the store. He expects to see the entire store cleaned and kept clean moving forward. This includes specifically the produce and meat areas.
“Those are the two biggest areas we as a store can impact,” he explained. “You can buy a can of beans anywhere. The labels might change, but a can of beans is a can of beans. Its up to us to make the produce and meat sections appealing.”
Everly also added that another change he expects to make immediately is fixing a problem the store has had with running out of items. He said that he walked the store following the recent Thanksgiving Holiday and discovered that many items were out of stock. He also added that he had been told that the store frequently runs out of sale items after they appear in the newspaper.
In the spring Everly expects to renovate the existing freezer section, bringing in all new equipment. But no amount of new equipment or cleaning will change the fate of a store.
“I came from a small store, so I am familiar with the issues that we face,” Everly concluded. “It all starts with being involved in the community.”
Reach MATT HUGHES
at 270-667-2068 or
matt@journalenterprise.com
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