Meet Fareway Stores, Inc. Store Manager Awards Finalist

Category B: Aric W. Reicks
Fareway Stores, Inc., Boone, Iowa 

The work-your-way-up model has proven successful for Aric Reicks, who started at Fareway when he was just 16 years old and is now the manager of a store in Boone, Iowa. 

Forging the Workforce of the Future 

While he may have climbed the proverbial ladder, he understands the importance of all of the rungs and serves as a mentor to high school and college students who are key to the future of the business and the industry at large. That kind of total perspective has served Reicks well in his many roles at Fareway, where began in high school at the company’s New Hampton location and continued in various positions in Carroll, Sioux City and Fort Dodge. 

Since his promotion to store manager at the Boone location in 2017, he has forged strong relationships with his team, often working side by side with them during training supporting the company's retail internship program with two to three internship hires per summer. He is a store management liaison for the development of a new pre-apprenticeship program for high school students, a role in which he brings his own relevant experience. 

Spearheads Innovation

Reicks thinks like a shopper, too, offering new categories and expanding the store’s to-go meal options. In line with the company’s focus on fresh, he recently spearheaded a complete renovation of the produce department that spanned display concepts, fixtures and technologies as well as new offerings. That upgrade has resulted in real financial gains for the department, and Fareway has since made similar upgrades in more than 120 locations based on the Boone store’s sales metrics and customer satisfaction.

His public interactions go well beyond the brick-and-mortar. At the area’s Annual Ag Omelet Fundraiser, you can find him behind the omelet station, making and folding perfect omelets. During Boone's Pufferbilly Days, he and his staff build a float for the parade and volunteer at a nonprofit food stand that benefits community reinvestment.  

While he’s clearly a people person, Reicks’s number are solid. Since he stepped into the manager role, the profitability of the Boone store has jumped by double digits. He regularly provides metrics for initiatives and collects feedback from his team and customer base to make the most informed decisions. He’s got a knack for technology,  helping develop several large-scale IT projects, including both internal and external programs.  

Having spent his entire career there, Reicks is close to the Fareway organization. In a literal way, his store is the closest to the company’s main campus, and it often a live test site. In that sense, as he has continued to make his way up, Reicks has also come full circle