Industry Grocery store Revenue $341 million (2011) Founded 1969 Type of business Private | Products Food Website www.stewleonards.com Number of employees 2,226 Key person Stew Leonard, Jr. | |
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Key people Stew Leonard, Jr., President & CEO Headquarters Norwalk, Connecticut, United States Profiles | ||
Stew Leonard's is a chain of five supermarkets in Connecticut and New York which Ripley's Believe It or Not! deemed "The World's Largest Dairy", with Fortune magazine listing Stew Leonard's as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For".
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Founded in 1969 with seven employees in Norwalk, Connecticut, there are currently three stores in Connecticut (Norwalk, Danbury, & Newington) and two in New York (Yonkers & Farmingdale). One is slated to be open in 2017 in East Meadow, New York.
Stores
The New York Times called Stew Leonard's the "Disneyland of Dairy Stores." The stores are not set up like traditional grocery stores; one must walk through the entire store (though there are short cuts). As customers walk through a path of aisles, they are greeted by different employees dressed up in costumes and by animatronic characters called the "Farm Fresh Five" that perform songs and dance. The stores also feature petting zoos and outdoor cafes in the warmer months and sell a variety of prepared meals year round.
"Anyone who comes from Connecticut or thereabouts knows this landmark chain of grocery stores where mechanized cows sing and roosters crow," according to a writer for the Sun-Sentinel of Florida.
The store is also known for its customer-service policy, which greets shoppers at each store's entrance etched into a three-ton rock:
- The customer is always right.
- If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule #1.
Tax fraud
In 1993, Stew Leonard Sr. was convicted of committing tax fraud through an elaborate scheme including short-weighting to divert more than $17.1 million in cash register receipts over a ten-year period. The fraud involved a computer program designed to skim off sales. The fraud was directed by Stew Leonard Sr. in concert with the company's CFO and store manager. Skimmed cash was placed in bundles in Leonard Sr.'s office fireplace, to be later moved offshore or disguised as gifts. Leonard Sr. was caught in June 1991 carrying $80,000 cash en route to the island of Saint Martin.
Stew Leonard Sr. plead guilty to the charges and in 1993 was sentenced to 52 months in prison. He ultimately served 44 months before being released in June 1997.