Harris Teeter 2001 Annual Report Download - page 11

Ruddick Corporation & Subsidiaries Harris Teeter Pages 6.7
We increased productivity by more than
3% at the store level, in large part because
of the reduced employee turnover. Turnover
is costly because new employees require
additional training and tend to be less effi-
cient. We reduced turnover by 25%, which
contributed to the 50% decline in training
costs. Our profit-sharing program is designed
to help us retain our valued associates. While
the slowing economy undoubtedly played a
role in reducing our turnover, the bulk of the
improvement came from better recruitment
and hiring practices.
mystery shopper, vic programs provide
results | We have a very dedicated mystery
shopper program that provides us with valu-
able insights into how customers view their
shopping experience with us and allows us
to identify potential problems and address
them before they become widespread. We
pay attention to what we learn from these
reports because they are both a warning
system and a report card on our perform-
ance. Our mystery shopper ratings improved
throughout the year.
Another program that we anticipate will
improve satisfaction and help drive customer
traffic is our Very Important Customer (“VIC”)
loyalty card program. This enables us to col-
lect customer data to develop customized
merchandising and promotional programs.
We look forward to continuing to imple-
ment the programs and procedures that
allowed us to serve our customers better
and more profitably in 2001 and to build
on that success in 2002. We are clearly
focused on those markets where we have
proven our ability to compete.
Last year, sales by our stores
that were open for all of
2000 and 2001 grew at 2.8%,
well above our target.