October 26, 2012

             Reporter: Ron Brown           Editor: Ron Brown         Photographer: Leander Hauri                   

President:  Mark Roberts 2012 - 2013          


  

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Timely, Mark?

  

In the absence of Charlie Franklin, Prez Mark Roberts offered the following political observation from none other than Gore Vidal; "The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country - and we haven't seen them since."

 

 

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS

 

Jack Peers - Past President, Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary

Mike Ball - Virtue extolled by Brad Davis

Alicia Cragholm - Almost perfect attendance, from noon club

 

Chris Laszcz-Davis - Last attendee as non-member

Steve Davis - Present for the coronation of wife Chris

Pat Andress - Trader Joe's Captain and guest speaker

 

ANOTHER GARDEN PARK APARTMENT PUMPKIN CARVING...

 

A great turnout for kids and Rotarians

Was a great success this year, with more moms participating with the kids for the first time. Brad Davis deemed this the best year ever for this event. Kudos to Pat, Alex, Hays, Chuck Bove, Thomas Peeks, Ernie, Katie Rose, Paul Fillinger, Kathe and Walt Nelson, Ron Melvin and family, for making the occasion particularly festive. Brad says "they love us at the apartments."

 

ORINDA CLUB SAYS THANKS...

 

For the $1,500 donation by LSR to their club project to raise $50,000 to buy transportation for kids living in an orphanage in India. This is a District matching grants project which was launched a year ago. The goal is reaching completion, having received solid support from all of Orinda's neighboring Rotary Clubs.

 

DON JENKINS RECEIVES RI DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

A most decorated "Rookie"

 

Having recently transferred his Rotary club allegiance from Orinda to LSR, Donovan Jenkins was recently named a recipient of the Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award and Citation for Meritorious Service. This is the Foundation's highest recognition of active service, which must reach beyond the district and last for an extended period of time. Rotarians become eligible for the award four years after receiving the Citation for Meritorious Service, which recognizes individuals who have provided significant active service to the Foundation for more than one year. Although anyone may nominate a candidate for the citation, district governors must approve each nomination. The Trustees may recognize one Rotarian from each district with the citation. Congratulations, Don, on your extraordinary achievement! We are pleased to note that you finally earned your blue badge at LSR!

 

HERE COMES CHRIS

 

4-Way Truth time, Brad?

Brad Davis did the honors of inducting Chris Lascz-Davis into membership in the Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary Club this morning. Husband Steve and sponsor John Fazel participated in the ceremony. Chris is the Principal and Founder of The Environmental Quality Organization, LLC, which specializes in environment health and safety, operational integrity and  product stewardship solutions for small, medium and large size companies.

Only way to beat this crowd is with a smile!

 

She had extensive experience with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, serving as Corporate VP, Environmental Affairs in those latter years.

 

Chris has a BS Degree in Chemistry and Biology from Notre Dame and an MS in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

 

Steve and Chris have been married 35 years. Much more will be heard from and about Chris in the short term.

 

RUSH RANCH PROJECT ON TAP

 

John Fazel requires the help of four hearty souls to build a new partition in a barn at Rush Ranch this Saturday morning, November 3. Meet in the parking lot at Whole Foods in Lafayette at 8:30 a.m. and car pool from there. Contact John for any questions, further information or confirmation that you will gladly join in.

 

PROGRAM

Mr. Enthusiasm for TJ's

 

Pat Andress, 43-year veteran employee at Trader Joe's, was our guest speaker this morning. Pat joined the company in 1969 as he was starting college, for what he expected to be a one year job. 43 years later he's still at it and from the way he talks about it, still loving it. There is a lot of intriguing information to learn about the unique enterprise called Trader Joe's and Pat was delighted to enlighten us about most of it.

 

For instance, the company was first started by the Rexall Drug Company in an effort to expand on the pharmacy business. Rexall hired a 26 year old Stanford MBA named Joe Coulombe to develop this new convenience store concept, which they name Pronto Markets. Joe soon opened four more stores when Rexall decided that maybe this concept really did not take them where they wanted to go. Joe convinced them to sell the stores to him, at which point he took off for the beaches of Hawaii to figure out what he really wanted this business to become.

 

His thinking was influenced by two different, large scale changes in the U.S citizenry during the ten-year period from the late 50's to the 60's. The first was the military veterans taking advantage of the GI Bill and getting educated beyond the high school level. The second was the invention of the 747 airplane which provided opportunities for this newly enlightened generation to travel internationallyand to become acquainted with specialty food and drink items from other parts of the world. Additionally, there were over 600 Seven Eleven Stores out there (Pat did not mention them by name), and Joe definitely did not wish to compete with that concept.

 

The first Trader Joe's was opened near Cal Tech and thus became part of the criteria for new store locations...cheek by jowl with academia. The Trader Joe's business model has the opposite formula for success than that of modern supermarkets throughout the U.S. Supermarkets stock anywhere from 35,000 to 50,000 SKU's (individual) products, which are primarily provided by large producers and who have unlimited product availability. Their objective...sell a little of as many products as possible.

Lots of good questions for the Captain

 

Trader Joe's stocks from between 3,500 to 4,000 SKU's, which are made available directly to the stores (no distributors involved) from regional producers who have limited product quantities available for sale. Pat said that 80% of the items sold in their stores carry a Trader Joe's private label. Their objective...sell as much of each product as possible. Products are discontinued only if the quality or price becomes unacceptable or if the customers are not buying them.

 

Customer loyalty is consistently rated the highest in the nation. 345 U.S. stores have no debt and racked up $10 billion in sales in 2011. The employees are well paid. In the beginning the business was 51% owned by the president and 49% by 70 employees, of which Pat was one. The company was sold in 1979 to the owners of the German company Aldi, with the promise of "hands-off" all of Trader Joe's management of the operations. The Albrecht family has done very well with their investment in Trader Joe's while successfully running 600 Aldi stores in Europe.

 

In response to a question about "Two Buck Chuck," this was the delightfully amazing answer. The Charles Shaw Napa Valley winery was acquired by two Franzia brothers after their father sold the family winery and left them with $5,000 each to figure out what they wanted to do with themselves for the rest of their lives. They became the JFJ Distribution Company and began bottling bulk wines from grapes harvested by the growers. They convinced Trader Joe's that the wines were better than acceptable and got an exclusive contract to sell the wine under the Charles Shaw label. It became universally known as Two Buck Chuck, and won wine-tasting events against $30 to $50 wines, which were aired on 60 Minutes and at such notable restaurants as Boulevard in San Francisco. As Pat said, you can love it or hate it...but it's hard to argue with ten million boxes of Two Buck Chuck sold annually...the largest selling single label in the U.S.

 

Say hello to Pat next time you are in the Lafayette Store. You'll be glad you did.

                   

CALENDAR

  

Friday 11/2 - Delightful November surprise

Friday 11/9 - Rotary International Foundation

Tuesday 11/13 - Board Meeting, Orinda

Friday 11/23 - Dark, Thanksgiving weekend

Friday 11/30 - Leander Hauri exposes himself

 

Friday 12/7 - Congressman George Miller

Friday 12/14 Dr. Paul Staudohar, Baseball, unions, the East Bay

 

HOME Team schedule...Saturdays 8am to noon 

 

2013 - January 26, March 23, May 25, July 27   

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