Often described as ‘The Disney World of Grocery Stores,” Stew Leonard’s stores in Norwalk and Danbury, Conn., and now in Yonkers, N.Y., are a true American success story. Voted “Best Grocery Stores in New England,” by Yankee Magazine in the September edition, this unusual and fast-growing company bases its success on listening to the customer and developing a second-to-none work force.

Stew Leonard’s started in Norwalk in 1969 as a dairy store with 17,000 square feet of retail shopping space and only eight product items for sale. This store was an expansion to Clover Farms Dairy, which started in the 1920s. Today, the store still processes its own milk and dairy items.

Thirty additions to the floor space have been made over the years and the store now carries 2,000 items (most grocery stores carry about 30,000 items). The dairy concept has been expanded to include meats, fish, produce, bakery, cheese, coffee, and wine. Still a family-owned and -operated business, run by Stew Leonard Jr., the grocery stores now do more than $300 million in annual sales and serve more than 300,000 shoppers weekly.

What makes Stew Leonard’s so unique? At the entrance of each store there is an 8-foot-high, 6-ton monolithic granite stone boldly engraved with the following house rules: “Rule 1 – The Customer is Always Right.; Rule 2 – If the Customer is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule No. 1.” Once inside the store, the shopper quickly realizes this is no ordinary grocery store. The stores are fun for the customer and child-friendly. There are animated oversized vegetable rock bands that periodically sing from high above the sales floor and were created by Disney animators. There are costumed cows and other animals walking the aisles, not unlike Moogret the Cow at the Bangor State Fair.

There is a barnyard petting zoo. Food celebrities such as Paul Newman, Jimmy Dean, the late Frank Perdue and many others have made regular guest promotional appearances in the stores. Milk, soda, and orange juice are made at the store. The meat counters are more than 300 feet long and custom-built. Specialized track lighting showcases merchandise displays and food items. There are three full-time sign painters for each store to hand-paint pricing and marketing signs. (no unit pricing). In addition, Stew Leonard’s sells more than 30,000 Christmas trees annually.

At the front of the store, there is a large wall for recognizing employees in a number of ways. There is also a wall to commemorate those employees that have passed away over the years. Customers of the month are pictured and there is also a large wall area designated for photographs of customers holding a Stew Leonard’s plastic shopping bag.

This “Bags Around the World” tradition was started in 1974, when a customer sent in a photo of herself carrying a Stew Leonard’s bag while standing in front of the Kremlin in Moscow. The photo has sparked thousands of customers to send in photos from all over the world, each holding a shopping bag. There is even a large doctored photo of an astronaut standing on the moon holding the plastic advertising as well as a bona-fide image of a scuba diver 30 feet below the surface of the Atlantic within the Bermuda Triangle.

Customers with comments and complaints can fill out a comment card within the store and each card is reviewed at staff meeting the following day with immediate follow-up by phone within 24 hours to the customer. For some issues, customers are invited to staff meetings to improve the company’s understanding of the concerns, and better implement any changes. Many innovative merchandising techniques have been put into practice through this customer involvement process.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT-Maine Center for the Public Interest.

Maine’s membership-funded, nonprofit consumer organization. For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.