They follow the Chick-fil-A model in hiring personnel. Actually I think Chick-fil-A copied their model. The store was founded in Winter Haven, FL in the early 1930's. The employees are trained to be cordial with a smile. If you do not have that personality you will not last long.
I apologize for the length of this post but I have an affection for Publix and how they treat employees. Based on a lesson of life.
My first cousin's dad got sent to the federal pen in Atlanta and he and his four younger brothers were left without a father for 20 years. His dad's crime was a white collar crime involving finances. He was a brilliant person (IQ wise) but thought he could swindle old ladies out of their money. When they divided up the Old Home Place his wife, my aunt, got her 40 acres and my uncle decided to develop it. He got into a mess and The Feds put him in the Pen.
Anyway what is left of the family are 5 young brothers and a mama. So at age 14 one of the boys went down to Publix to apply for a job as a bag boy. This was in 1958. It was a small town and the manager of the store went to the same church and he knew the story of the family. He hired him and let him work after school. Time moves on and it is time to graduate from HS. Bobby is a straight A student. Publix kept him employed and allowed him to go to college at the University of South Florida in Tampa. They paid his tuition. He graduated with a degree in finance and economics and worked his way to the top, all the way to their headquarters where he retired. From a bag boy to the inner circles of a giant food store. Now that is the America I knew about when I was a youngster.
One Publix practice that was common and still is; during a rain storm an employee will hold an umbrella for you as you go to your car and the bag boy/ girl is trained to always offer to take your groceries to the car.
His niece is now with Publix and she told me they are expanding into Kentucky on a trial basis. First Louisville and then Lexington. I told her I was not sure it would go over in Kentucky because it is more Midwest than Southern and it caters to different food. But maybe it will. Locally we have a lot of transplant from the North who are of Italian descent. Publix caters to them and have a long aisle of nothing but olive oil and Italian food items. So you can get chicken and dumplings on one side of the aisle and olive oil on the other. They did the same thing for Spanish food. That is an example of understanding your customers.
