Meet Brookshire Grocery Co. Store Manager Awards Finalist

Category B: Joseph Stephens
Brookshire Grocery Co., Kilgore, TX 

He may be recognized for being an outstanding store manager, but Joseph Stephens also gives many awards out – and it is a key to his success.

In his role managing a Brookshire Grocery Co. store in Kilgore, Texas, Stephens regularly presents honor ribbons to team members with particularly strong performances. And that’s not the only effective morale booster: he’s known for hosting a mean cookout for his employees as a way to rally and reward them for their hard work.

He Goes Above and Beyond

While he’s quick to recognize those who go above and beyond, Stephens sets a high bar for excellence at the 52,500-square-foot store he has managed since 2017, three decades after first joining the Brookshire business family. He communicates expectations broadly and also conducts one-on-one training and troubleshooting with employees who are challenged by certain processes or standards. Under his mentorship, several team members have been promoted to leadership positions within the company. In 2019, he was awarded Store Director of the Year by Brookshire Grocery Co., largely because of his ability to lead and develop employees for long-term growth.

That rising-tide-lifts-all boats mindset has paid off, as the Kilgore location wrapped up 2019 with a 2.8% sales increase over the previous year. Before the pandemic hit in 2020, the store logged a 3% sales jump for the first 18 weeks of the year. He also works to boost profitability by reining in expenses and optimizing/streamlining labor, resulting in a 20-point reduction in shrink from 2018 to 2019. 

Driving Shopper and Community Engagement

Stephens’s strengths with his internal team are matched by the bonds he has forged externally with customers and the community. 

He drives shopper engagement in traditional and novel ways, including through Brookshire’s “mystery shop” program in which customers are equipped with body cameras to document their in-store experiences. Later, the footage is reviewed by a third party to ensure their experience matched up to company standards. The Kilgore location scored 100% satisfaction in the last two months of the initiative, one of only two stores in the company to achieve that perfect mark.

The town of Kilgore is located in East Texas oil country, which ebbs and flows with the industry. In boom times, he delivers on demand for large quantities and special order, and in tougher stretches, he helps meet their changed and often downshifted needs.

Kilgore is also home to Kilgore College, where some of Brookshire’s employees are enrolled as students. Stephens works with students to coordinate their work-study schedules and, to give the industry a lift for the future, shows them how food retailing can be a career.

And employees aren’t the only ones who get to enjoy his signature spirit-rousing events and gestures: he and the store team held a tailgate event before a big Kilgore College football game, where they doled out snacks and drinks. Based on that and many other customer interactions, you might say that Stephens’s fan base continues to grow.