Who makes a business go? It’s customers and employees. Without customers there is no business. It doesn’t matter what the politicians do. It doesn’t matter how great the employees are. So first the community must continue to support this business with their hard earned money. Hill District people need to think of this when you are out at a Wal-Mart or Giant Eagle or SHOP ‘n SAVE in the suburbs buying groceries. The same groceries, at the same prices, with less money spent on gas can be spent in your community. Remember this store is employing people in the neighborhood. Are the suburban stores?
And this goes for non Hill District residents as well. If you can go out to Robinson Township, and other suburbs far away from where you live, why not try out the Hill store.
As for the employees. One of the reasons for the failure of the previous store was unprofessional attitudes, stealing and the total lack of pride by many, not most. All employees must remember, and this should be the teaching of every manager that the customer is the lifeline of the store and without them there would be no jobs.
Hopefully this has been the case with management and the employees get it. Instead of complaining they should be proud to have a job, which is helping rebuild the Hill District. A store in which you can be just as proud of as those people out in the suburbs, knowing that those employees out there will never take more special care of their customers than you.
One of the big reasons for the failure of the previous store was theft, internal and external, with the vast majority coming from employees and people who lived right there in the community.
Are we that blind or stupid?
Why would someone who knows this store is employing people in the community who desperately need jobs, plus has created so much positive pride in a decaying community contribute to the store’s failure by stealing?
Having been a retail manager I know that when something is stolen it’s gone 100 percent. Meaning it’s a 100 percent net loss off the profit ledger, and you can’t recover it. Hopefully we don’t have as many of these morons today as we did back then.
And for you employees, if you see a person stealing, be they another employee, or a customer you know, even if it’s your neighbor either report that person or walk up to them and read them the riot act, letting them know that “No Not In This Place. We Will Not Tolerate It Here.”
The Hill District has become a beautiful community on the whole. Yes there is still work to do, but it looks much better than it did when the old store was opened. There are not only more people with money to spend but also more people with higher incomes. These people should help the store grow.
I remember being so proud when I first walked into the Phoenix Hill Mall store. So many people had worked so hard to get it open. I still remember the many, many stories we wrote about the struggle to get it opened. This didn’t happen overnight either and it took several people in city, county, and state government working closely together as well as with concerned citizens and organizations throughout the city.
I remember at the Courier the many writers who kept the general public aware of what was going on and its importance; Greg Mims, Gene Reed, Robert Flipping, Althea Fonville, Ron Suber and myself.
The same is true of the current grocery store. It took several city councilmen, mayors, state reps and various community groups to make this a reality. One thing they are to be commended for is they held fast for an all-purpose store instead of the discount mini stores. Why can’t a Black community have a full service first class business just like the other communities? Doesn’t our money spend just as well as the White man’s?
I don’t remember how long the first store existed, but I pray that this one is still going strong 10 to 20 years from now. But it will only happen with the unconditional support from the Hill District community in particular but the overall Black community as a whole.
So once again thanks and congratulations to all who was a part of this great success that hopefully will open the door for even more major businesses not only in the Hill but also in Homewood, North Side, East Liberty, Larimer and it goes on. Who knows, maybe little ole Pittsburgh can become an example to Black communities throughout this country.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
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