The Untold Story of Albertsons LLC with Andy Scoggin | Ever Onward - Ep. 63 - Ever Onward Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have a very
special guest, longtime friend,andy Scoggin.
Andy Scoggin is the founder andCEO chief investment officer of
Scoggin Capital Investment SCI.
He has a storied career andwe're going to get into details
with him.
Started as an attorney, butthen joined Albertsons, was with
them for a long time and thenwas part of the founding

(00:22):
Albertsons LLC that ended upsaving Albertsons, keeping it
here, incredible, explosivegrowth, ultimately ending in the
acquisition of Safeway and thenan IPO in 2020.
He's going to tell that storytoday.
It's a phenomenal story.
Andy has continued on to be oneof the biggest philanthropists
and thought leaders here in theValley.
He's just an incredible guy.

(00:42):
He's on every board and doesleaders here in the Valley.
He's just an incredible guy.
He's on every board and does somuch for our community.
I'm really excited to have himon today, to have him share his
story and talk more about whathe's up to.
Prior to hearing from Andy,we're going to hear from Mark
Cleverley and Holt Haga on anAllquist update.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning Mark Cleverley here, chief Leasing
Officer with Allquist.
We're here for another Allquistupdate Holtega, vp Leasing
Allquist Development.
We thought it'd be good tospend a few minutes here and
talk about triple nets and justbecause it comes up a lot during

(01:20):
lease negotiations and astenants kind of look at our
buildings and we we've tried togo, our office buildings we've,
you know, historically in thevalley they've been full service
, full service, less janitorialleases in all office buildings
and we've tried to get away fromthat and go to more of a triple
net lease.
And with that it always comesup from a tenant like, well,

(01:45):
what's my all-in number, right?
And so we thought it'd be goodto just kind of walk through
what that means for someone,because we quote them a rate and
then you've got to addsomething to that right.
Yeah, exactly, and you were onthe property management side.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Oh yeah, I dealt with Cam's when we were at.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Gardner Company and know all about all the dirty
details.
So walk us through some stuffthat you would tell a tenant and
kind of get them comfortablewith the triple nets.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, and so when we say triple nets, I think it's
basically just synonymous withoperating expenses CAMS would be
another word to describe it,but we typically refer to it as
triple nets.
And the reason I think it'scome up a lot, you know, in the
last, you know, 24 months, isjust because costs have
increased.
You know there's beeninflationary pressure kind of

(02:39):
across the board.
But we see it on the operatingside of real estate through the
cost to manage a property andoperate a property.
And so one of the things thatwe, when we look at how to
control triple nets, it's reallya measure of how efficient are
you as a landlord in managingyour building.

(03:00):
And so we as a company takekind of top to bottom approach
and say what are the key drivers?
Right, some of these arecontrollable, some of them
aren't.
But you're talking, you knowtotal, you know property taxes,
janitorial, electricity,building maintenance, admin.
I mean you've got kind of theseline item expenses.
But the key drivers, you knowalways property taxes a huge

(03:22):
expense, janitorial has become ahuge expense.
It's like you know alwaysproperty taxes a huge expense,
janitorial has become a hugeexpense.
It's like you know 20% to 30%of the total.
You know triple net cost, theall-in number, and so there's
ways that you can, as a landlord, really influence those numbers
.
Property taxes are tough.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
So you brought up controllable versus
uncontrollable.
So controllable expenses areones that we control like a
janitorial, Exactly that we cango out and get bids on and hard
bid that every year.
Uncontrollable,non-controllable expenses, as
called out in our leases, aretaxes.
We have no control over thatand it's just a pass-through to

(04:04):
the tenant right.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, snow removal utilities, things like that that
are just direct pass-through tous, yeah, exactly, we can't
control.
But the things that we cancontrol I mean we can control
property taxes only in the sensethat if we feel that the
property taxes are high, we willgo through the appeals process
to reduce that cost, appealsprocess to reduce that cost.

(04:28):
But the controllable operatingexpenses for groups that have
larger portfolios, you knowwe're able to control costs very
effectively and a lot of it isthrough relationships and
economies of scale.
So when we're negotiating ajanitorial contract, we're not
just negotiating for onebuilding, you know 150,000
square foot building, we've gota full, you know, portfolio that
we're we're negotiating and soyou know, we've been fortunate

(04:50):
in that sense to be able to, youknow, come out with uh, uh,
incredibly competitive, um, youknow contracts, uh, and so, um,
the tendency that on our side,so our triple nets, um, you know
, relative to the market, arevery, very low.
So when we get asked about itand it comes up in the lease
negotiations, we sharehistoricals, we share kind of

(05:12):
our process for how we, you know, manage our expenses.
But relative to the market, weare very, very efficient.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
We build great buildings, very efficient
buildings, our hvac and and ithelps too that a lot of our
buildings are new yeah, right, Imean, and we can kind of
control more the utility side,just because it's, uh, you know,
our, our mechanical equipment,our hvac equipment is, is new
and it's more efficient than alot of the old buildings and so

(05:46):
we are able to control those alittle bit more.
And I agree, when companieshear what our triple net
expenses are, when brokers hearwhat our triple net expenses are
, they always kind of likereally, you guys are that low.
We're like, yeah, we are, andwe can show you.
I mean, we'll open bookeverything with you, right,
cause we have to with a tenant,we have to show them line by

(06:13):
line, uh, what those expensesare and what they're getting for
those services.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's interesting, it's.
It is it's like kind of that,put that give, take, where are
we?
You know, if you're talkingabout a triple net expense, it's
, it's typically well, hey, youknow it's um.
You know I as a tenant, nowhave to potentially pay more or
have more susceptibility to ummarket conditions with triple
nets, um versus like a fullservice gross lease, cause the
difference between a triple netand a gross lease is, or a full

(06:37):
service lease is, you know, baserent plus triple nets equal.
You know, your, your fullservice growth, so uh.
But when we do show them, youknow we show tenants and our and
our partners what we'reactually achieving.
It is it's like it's actually a.
It's actually a um uh benefitand and a competitive advantage
for us.
So, um, yeah, good stuff.

(06:58):
We work hard, doesn't?
It doesn't hurt that we've got,uh, your brother, rain man
Ryanley overseeing ouraccounting and finance.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, he's the smart one.
He's the smart one of thefamily.
I'll take the good looks.
That's right.
Okay, man, good stuff.
Thanks, holt.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Andy, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
It's my pleasure, this is going to be fun.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, they're all fun , but this one's going to be
great.
Yeah, really appreciate you.
We did a little formal biobefore this.
That will be recorded so we'llget right into it.
But you've done so much here inthis town I don't even know
where to start.
But can we start at Albertson's?
Yeah, do you want to startbefore that?

(07:52):
Um, you want me to tell you howI got here?
Yeah, tell us, tell us how yougot here, because I think, um, I
don't know how many people Iknow in my kind of circle who
knows the Albertson's LLC storyand how that went, and but but
tell us how you got hereabsolutely so we'll start really
set the stage that I'm a eastcoast transplant, so I grew up
in the east coast what town?

Speaker 4 (08:14):
south, born in Rhode Island.
As a kid we moved down to NewOrleans and then to Florida and
had a short stint in San Diego.
But junior high and high schoolwere in New Jersey.
So really, jersey was a.
Why did you move so much?
Navy, navy, yeah, that was inthe Navy, that was in the Navy.
So that was my world.

(08:37):
And you know, my dad grew up inColorado so I always had this
romantic view of the West and soI came out West, went to
college, went to law school,ended up in San Francisco at the
law firm and knew I didn't wantto do that for the long term.
It was a phenomenal education,a great experience, big city,

(08:59):
lots of interactions, lots ofchallenging, complex kind of
problems that you're dealingwith.
But I did not want to be alawyer in a law firm and a
partner and doing that kind ofliving, that kind of life live
your life basically in sixminute increments is what I used
to do, you know, and you're inbattle most of the time in the
kind of law I was doing.
So a friend of mine, actually,that was in the law firm knew

(09:22):
that and she'd seen an ad in oneof the legal magazines for a
firm that was looking for peoplein the Intermountain West,
didn't know where it was.
And she shot that over to meand I said, okay, I'll send
something in, sent it in, didn'thear anything for a few months,
in fact I forgot that I'd doneit.

(09:45):
When my wife on a Saturdaymorning gets a phone call in the
office which all associateattorneys are on Saturdays and
somebody says to her hey, I'mcalling about a job possibility.
I want to talk to Andy, is hethere?
No, he's over his office.
And he said okay.

(10:05):
And then she said can I ask youwhere you're located?
And he said boise, idaho, andshe said oh.
And he said oh, no, you don'tlike boise.
She quickly, you know, backedthat up and said oh, I don't
know that much.
But you know, both of us saidshe lived in Portland, oregon,
and she and her family on tripshad gone through the Flying J

(10:28):
and kind of that was what theyknew of Boise and wasn't that
much there, and so we werepretty sure this was not a place
we'd end up.
But I thought, you know, I'llgo out, do a little interviewing
, see what that's like and chalkit up to experience, and then
we'll keep looking for someplacewe really want to go.
So I got here, uh, in a onoctober gorgeous day you know

(10:50):
what the fall days are and boise, you know, sun is shining,
leaves are changing, weather'sperfect and ended up.
The guy that wanted was going tointerview me and wanted to fill
this position was smart enoughto take me the long way to
Albert's headquarters from theairport and this is in 1992 and

(11:13):
so we go through the downtown,we go up to the mesa.
It kind of takes me all the wayaround and we end up the office
and on a break during that longyou know it's a full day, it's
eight hour day of interviews hegives me a chance to make a call
home and said you know, if yougot to see this place, this is
amazing, I had no idea.
And so I ended up took that jobwith Albertsons, not as a

(11:37):
lawyer, really involved innegotiations and doing things
that were much more businessangle, which is what I wanted to
learn, what I wanted to getinvolved in, worked in labor
relations.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
What year was that then?

Speaker 4 (11:53):
So this started January 3rd of 1993.
Okay, yeah, and so Albertsonsaid you know, I think you know
a little bit of the story, butit started in 1939, amidst the
Depression.
Incredible story.
1959, it goes public at the NewYork Stock Exchange, 50s, 60s
or 60s, 70s and 80s has thismeteoric rise.

(12:16):
The stock splits every otheryear.
The Wall Street Journal in themid-80s has an article called
the Stock Buy of the Century.
The Wall Street Journal in themid-'80s has an article called
the Stock by the Century.
And then by the time we get tothe 90s, when I come to the
grocery industry, the groceryindustry as an entity had

(12:38):
thought it owned the Americanconsumer because it had for
decades.
And a number of other nascentplayers start to come into the
industry, right, so Walmart yeah, on the very low end, starts
showing up.
They really weren't doinganything grocery-wise because

(13:01):
they didn't need to through the80s and into the early mid-90s.
And then they started to thinkabout how do we drive traffic
into our stores?
Because right now people comewhen they need something big,
they need tires or they needhousehold appliances or they
need something like that.
We're only going to do thatonce or twice a month, maybe

(13:21):
less.
But if I need food, I'm comingevery week.
And while I'm there, oh, Imight just grab this other item.
So Walmart starts thinkingabout that, and on the other end
you've got this little kind offruit and nuts player out of
Austin, texas.
Whole Foods starts to get alittle bit of traction and we

(13:41):
here.
You know, I'm just new to thegrocery industry, but I hear all
the veterans say well, hey,walmart will never sell
groceries because they don'tknow how to do that.
They're terrible at that.
They, you know they transportbikes and they transport, you
know, sofas and stuff.
They don't know how to dorefrigerated.
They don't know how to displayit on a market.
We're the geniuses, we're theonly ones that will ever be able
to do this.
We're the only ones that willever be able to do this.

(14:03):
And nobody wants organic foods,and that's a very, very small
segment of kind of weirdos thatare never going to amount to
anything.
So we're just going to ignorethose guys, right?
You've seen this story in a lotof industries.
So this is the story cominginto our industry.
Well, that ball starts rolling,or those balls start rolling

(14:26):
down the hill faster and fasterand faster, and so by the late
90s it's clear to senior execsat Albertsons and to the board
that something's got to be doneand that something their thought
is is you got to grow volume,because now you're getting
especially the Walmarts who arebuying at a better price than
anybody else because of how muchvolume they can drive.
And so Albertsons ends upengaging in a

(14:51):
multibillion-dollar merger andacquisition, so acquires a
company called American Stores,which is a fascinating Idaho
story.
If we had time just to tell thatstory I'd tell it.
But it was started by LS Skaggsand LS Skaggs was Sam Skaggs'

(15:14):
father.
Sam Skaggs was running AmericanStories through its meteoric
rise, but LS was one of theSkaggs brothers out of America
Falls, idaho.
His brother started Safeway.
Ls was Joe's partner instarting Albertsons and then

(15:35):
sold out to Joe about 10 yearsinto the Albertsons deal to go
start his drug stores.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
So you look at the Idaho roots in grocers.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
Safeway you know you look at, obviously.
So American stores had ownedJewel Osco in the Midwest.
I don't know if you're familiarwith them, but Osco was the
largest drug store chain in theMidwest at the time and still
one of the most significant ones.
That was started by OP Skaggsanother Skaggs brother, by the

(16:06):
way.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
So anyway, and there's just because we don't
really talk about it.
People don't know.
But AJ Belukoff's wife, susieSam Skaggs' daughter, sam
Skaggs' daughter.
So the philanthropy side ofthat part of the grocery world
certainly is still alive.
And you look at what Susie andaj have done here for decades.

(16:27):
Their fingerprints are onalmost all community events and
significant philanthropicdonations.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Quiet, but very quiet and that's just one brother ls
of these six brothers so love totell a story sometimes started
in one little shed next to therailroad, siding with a little
store that grew intoworld-changing retailers.
And there's several otherchains that they're involved in
Save on Drug, long's Drugs.

(16:53):
But where that circles back tous is now.
Ls died early.
His son, sam, took over Hislittle drugstore chain, turned
into American Stores there neverwas an American store.
It was the overall holdingcompany for Lucky Stores in
California and Julasco, acmeStores that were in the
tri-state area of New Jersey andPennsylvania and Delaware and

(17:16):
there were some other chains andthen a couple of big drug
chains and Albertson said we'regoing to acquire them.
A couple of big drug chains andAlbertson said we're going to
acquire them.
Sam had left and sold it and hewas out of that.
So Albertson's did that in 1999.
Within a year it was clear thatthis merger was destined for

(17:39):
disaster.
It was not coming together.
There was not a good mixture onthe board.
There was not a good mixture atthe senior levels.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
How long into that Because I remember that
happening.
It's about a year into it,about a year into it At least
internally, we were clear thatthe synergies that were promised
weren't working.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
There were a lot of challenges mostly, as I think
happens in many, many troubledmergers it was sort of the
cultural challenges between thetwo companies that had not been
resolved or considered beforethe deal got done.
And how are you going to dealwith just the way that you

(18:16):
charge back on your supply chain?
You know one's a profit centerand one's a cost center in the
two companies and we can't agreeon that.
And so you've got all thesecamps.
You know divided camps with thecompany.
So the company you know,eventually Gary Michael, a
phenomenal leader and CEO,leaves and he's the one that had
been the architect of thatmerger and the company board

(18:38):
brings in a leader who was notproductive probably one of the
most difficult leaders I'd everdealt with as the new CEO and
over the next few years thecompany continues to spend too
much and grow too little, to thepoint where it's clear that
something's going to happen andthe company ends up on the

(19:00):
auction block, so to speak.
Wow Right.
In a relatively short time.
Yeah, so this is by 2004, 2005,.
This the company's up for saleand part of the company.
So let me just give you a quickperspective.
You got something like athousand drug stores.
Those pretty easily sold to CVS, so that's gone.

(19:23):
The rest are grocery stores.
It's close to 1,800 grocerystores.
600 and some odd of thesegrocery stores are doing
terribly.
They're losing over 100 millionbucks a year.
You can kind of package them.
This CEO they brought inactually continued to call them
the non-core stores, which forthose people probably didn't
feel real good.
So that wasn't helping to growthere or turn them around.

(19:47):
But they're in real trouble.
But you've still got 1,100-plusstores that are actually doing
really well but they're weigheddown by this, you know, lead
balloon around their neck ofthese 600-some-odd stores.
So the board at one pointrealized we can't sell the whole
thing, so we're going to haveto split up.
The BOARD AT ONE POINT REALIZEDWE CAN'T SELL THE WHOLE THING,
so WE HAVE TO SPLIT UP.
So WE TAKE THESE, package THOSE1100, almost 1200 STORES.

(20:08):
About TWO THIRDS OF THE GROCERYSTORES SAY THESE STORES ARE
WORTH SOMETHING.
Let's GO SELL THEM.
A MOSTLY WHOLESAILER OUT OFMINNESOTA DECIDES THAT THEY CAN
SUPERVALUE THAT.
They decides that they cansuper value, that.
They can make a go of thosebecause they have a small group

(20:30):
of retail stores and they'vebeen pretty successful.
So they make a bid and end upbuying those for $12.1 billion.
The board's still got to getrid of the other 640, 650 stores
.
So what are they going to dowith those?
Nobody wants them.
So I become incrediblyfortunate to join together with

(20:54):
seven other former Albertsonspartners and a former company
called Albertsons LLC, and withsome backing from five private
equity and real estate investorsout of East Coast and Midwest,
we are able to buy those for$300 million.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
So think of the disparity in value here.
It's an incredible story.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Think of the disparity in value $300 million.
So I don't know that I've everheard For 650 stores versus $12
billion for just twice that many.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
So the thought you had.
So nobody wants them.
So, first of all, you hadreally smart people.
You can talk about those.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, I'll start with , we all thought we were going
to fail.
We thought we can do this andthese investors asked us to do
this.
So we thought, hey, you know wecould do this.
We had one ace up our sleeve,which is that the guy who was
kind of putting a group togetheris a guy named Bob Miller.
I think you've met Bob.
Yeah, yep, one of the mostlegendary retail executives in

(21:50):
the last Half century century.
Probably.
Bob's a little bit like theWizard of Oz.
He's phenomenal.
He's one of the best peopleI've ever worked with and we
worked very closely together for15 years.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
We still talk.
Very few people have met him orknow him.
He's behind the scenes, buteveryone you talk to says
exactly what you just saidBrilliant.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Nobody like him.
His story would be one of thebest podcasts you could ever do.
His story would be one of thebest podcasts you could ever do.
So, born in Mississippi, endsup, family moves in the 50s to
Southern California and hecontracts polio.
Yeah Right.
So he's in an iron lung at theage, I think, nine years old.

(22:30):
This guy faces an incredibleodds.
You know single mom family andhe has to get a job.
After work he becomes afootball player with one short
leg and a bad hip from polio andbecomes captain of the football
team.
You know these kind of storiesyou hear about Bob.
He gets a job at a grocerystore which eventually is

(22:52):
acquired in the 60s by JoeAlbertson.
But he's working Eventually.
He was acquired in the 60s byJoe Albertson but he says his
job was to just sort pop bottlesback when those were worth a
penny or whatever per bottle forthe store.
So he had to sort all those andthen go back to school every

(23:12):
day and graduate.
So he had this idea.
He tried to go to collegewithout, you know, without a
whole lot of money or a wholelot of ability.
But the people at the store hada different idea because they
really saw something in him andhe eventually they said hey,
we'll promote you, we'll promoteyou.
And he made his way up through,stayed with Albertson's for 30
years, became an executive VP inoperations for the company and

(23:35):
then in 92, ends up going to astruggling Northwest retailer
called Fred Meyer.
We all know him now, but theywere you know, and they had been
acquired by KKR and so big youknow takeover firm and some
other private equity so big youknow takeover firm and some
other private equity.

(23:56):
And so they were looking forsomebody to fix this thing and
he had a good reputation alreadythrough his 30 years with
Albertsons.
Ends up going there and in afew years rolls that up with
other acquisitions all the wayup and down the West Coast
Ralph's down in SouthernCalifornia, Smith's in Utah, et
cetera and creates this Westernchain, sells it to Kroger who

(24:19):
we're hearing a lot aboutrecently because they've been
trying to and they won't buyAlbertsons but they're a
behemoth out of Cincinnati andhe sells it for the highest, I
think, stock value of anygrocery chain to this day.
Phenomenal deal for hisinvestors and for him he becomes
vice chairman of the board overkroger, chief operations
officer.
He's there for a short time anda right aid who at that time,

(24:43):
um, just before he did that deal, had been the darling of the
grocery industry, of the drugindustry, and was, you know,
building stores like at a rateof two a week across the nation.
Um, you know, their stock wasthrough the roof and it turned
out there was a good reason forthat and that is that they'd
been cooking the books and theirCEO, I think, goes to jail,
their CFO goes to jail theirhead of HR for stock option

(25:07):
validation.
Something happens there.
I don't recall all the detail,but all of a sudden a bunch of
investors that had put a lot ofmoney into Rite Aid were in
trouble and they needed someoneto fix that.
And Bob gets another call.
Hey, we don't know anybody elsethat can do this.
We've seen, you know, we knowyou through our investments over
there in Fred Meyer et cetera.
And Bob, who didn't need to,went and did that and within

(25:29):
three to six months he's got theship righted again.
Wow.
And he brought some of his teamover with him from Rite Aid.
Mary Sammons she was awesomebrought her as president.
She ends up replacing him aftera couple of years at Rite Aid,
once they've got that rollingagain and he's kind of done,
he's had a phenomenal career.

(25:50):
When he gets a call again fromthese investors who say, hey, we
got this group of brokenAlbertson stores and we need
somebody to turn around.
Do you want to put together alittle team and do a couple of
your stint?
And we know you're done.
You know you don't need anymore work.
And so I get a call in thespring of 2005 or 2006 from a

(26:16):
friend who was a formertreasurer, I think at Albertsons
, and he says, hey, you want tohave dinner with somebody up at
Hillcrest Country Club.
I said, if you're asking Rick,I'll go.
I don't know who it is.
So I show up there and it's BobMiller.
I'd never met Bob Miller becauseI started in 93 and BOB MILLER
BECAUSE I STARTED IN 93 AND HELEFT IN 92.

(26:36):
But I KNEW ALL ABOUT HIM INFACT.
I HAD A CARD I USED TO KEEP ACARD.
I KEEP QUOTES IN MY PHONE.
I HAD THIS CARD IN MY POCKETWHEN I MET HIM.
On IT WAS A QUOTE THAT I PULLEDOUT OF A SUPERMARKET NEWS news
magazine from a guy named BobMiller that had said, when he
was asked by the reporter how doyou keep people moving forward

(26:58):
in this right aid turnaroundwhen everything is against you?
You're a week from bankruptcy,You're all this.
He said we don't get distracted, we don't get discouraged.
We know what we need to do.
We go do it every day.
That's my quote and I'm sittingnow across the table from this
guy that I wrote that downbecause I thought you know that

(27:18):
is so simple but makes so muchsense.
And he looks across the table.
He says to me you know I don'tneed another job.
I've done more than I everthought I would in my life, but
I started my career here.
I know these stores, I knowthese people, I know their
families.
And he said I'd like you tocome join us, a small group of

(27:41):
us.
I think we can save tens ofthousands of jobs.
I think we could have some funtogether doing it and we might
make a little money.
But I can't promise that one.
Now, on the other side, I got anoffer from Super Value, who's

(28:03):
buying all the good stores.
You know be an officer, getstock, have a title, be the blah
blah in this.
You know what's going to be thesecond largest chain in the
nation at that point in time.
So very secure, but not thatexciting.
And then I got this guy sayinghey, let's go save jobs, let's
go change the world.
And I'm a risk averse guy andI'm sitting.
I said, let me get back to youand I spend a week calling
friends I trust and people.
And then my wife one nightcomes in.
She sees me sitting on the sofain the dark thinking what am I

(28:25):
gonna do.
She says I think it's time youtook a little risk in your life.
Great advice, huh.
I called him that morning.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
That should go on your quote wall.
I know she, wow, she's wise,and so I.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
I called him that next morning, said I'm in and
over the next.
So we, we started on june 2ndof before.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I don't want to take your time.
I don't want you to miss this,because if you think about the
significance for idaho and thevalley here's, here's a legacy
company started right here.
Right, this legacy brand that,if you think about where it was
headed, right, everything wasgoing away.
It was going to be this kind ofdisastrous ending through a set
of circumstances.

(29:03):
I remember obviously I didn'tknow you then, but the community
thinking, oh, we'll hope thisworks because this could save a
brand.
I mean, talk about thecommunity significance, the
legacy significance and theheritage that changed in that
one moment with you guys.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Excellent point and there's three things that I
think of with that.
One is just Joe's legacy.
Yeah, this guy took a risk in1939 to build something that
became nationwide, and he did itbased on some incredibly simple
but powerful principles.
He built a 10,000 square footgrocery store At the time, a&p.

(29:43):
Earlier around that time,atlantic Pacific Tea Company
they called A&P it was thebiggest chain in the nation.
They had 10,000 stores but theywere like anywhere from 500
square feet to, you know, 2000square feet were kind of their
footprint.
People still were going in the1930s to the baker to grab their

(30:03):
bakery and to the butcher toget their meat.
And then they go to the grocerystore to get their canned goods
and their bleach and theirflour and sort of those central
goods.
And Joe said I can change, I'man innovator.
He didn't even know he was aninnovator but he said I'm going
to put everything under one roofand build a 10,000 square foot
store.
That just wasn't happening.
You know he had an ice creamcounter in his store where the

(30:24):
kids would come and they had BigJoe ice cream as they called it
.
And so he's one of those guysthat changed an industry and
then grew this thing rapidly inthe worst economic disaster that
the world had ever known,because he created a profit pool
for his store directors anddepartment managers.
Nobody was doing that, so theywere earning if they increased.

(30:47):
Just little things we take forgranted.
Now he was putting these thingsinto action and they were just
coming to him as what if and howabout action?
And they were just coming tohim as what if and how about you
know?
And he, but he was also a guythat got up at you know 4, 30 or
5 all his life, because he wasa grocery man, and so that's how
he saw the world.
As you work hard, you take careof your customers and you, um,

(31:09):
you know, you got to look atprice, you got to look at
quality, you got to look at allthat stuff, but you got to
personalize.
But you also have to bedifferent.
Something's got to look at allthat stuff, but you've got to
personalize it.
But you also have to bedifferent.
Something's got to be different.
So, anyway, you've got Joe'slegacy.
Now to your point.
We've got the jobs that youhave in the headquarters, in the
stores around here, but notjust that.
Wherever you have a largegrocery headquarters, you've got

(31:33):
Procter Gamble sets up anoffice.
And they have 20, you knowemployees there that now are
living there with their familiesand you know going to the
schools and buying products intheir city and services and all
that stuff.
So you've got all of that kindof thing and then you just have.
You know, what we care mostabout is our customers having a

(31:54):
great place to be able to goshop and take care of their
families.
And we have more entrants intothe Valley now the Trader Joe's,
et cetera than we did then, butthere wasn't a lot there.
So yeah, it was a labor of loveas much as it was a labor of

(32:15):
just having a good career and ajob we all still wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Well, but it sounds like for you meeting this kind
of legend sitting across from atable from him and the
excitement of what could be.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
And remember the first thing he led with.
We could save tens of thousandsof jobs, but he led with Not.
I can make you rich, yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Plus pretty good record of turning stuff around.
Great record mitigated risk foryou, cause you're thinking, if
I'm going to go into battle thisguy, I want to go into battle,
but he's the most honest personI've ever dealt with Um, you
know, at least equal to um.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
So he said to me and to the two or three other you
know, close friends and partnersthat I had that were coming in
together.
He sat us down.
He said I want you to know thatI don't know if you'll have a
job in two years or if I will,because this is that bad.
We could fail and you can beback out in the street.
I'm not gonna lie to you and hewon't.
He'll never lie to you.
So we're going in, you know,with our eyes wide open.

(33:11):
Going we got to get in earlyand work till late every day,
find the best people we can, putthem in the right spots and
then, just, you know, hope thatour ideas and practices work.
Well, there's good news here.
So, first of all, we bought itfor $300 million.
We start on June 2nd of 2006.
We're all sitting in a littlerented office space.

(33:34):
We didn't have our own offices.
Bob's in a cubicle with the restof us.
We're all sitting in a littlerented office space we have in
our own offices.
Bob's in a cubicle with therest of us, we're all in little
cubicles.
What a story, yeah, and we're,and within about a month and a
half or two months this localchain out of Northern California
California family-owned about200 and some odd stores wants to

(33:59):
take over our NorthernCalifornia stores.
So let me give you a geographyreally quick.
We bought Florida, louisiana,texas, new Mexico, arizona,
colorado and Northern California.
So the good stuff that wedidn't get is like Southern
California was doing phenomenal,the Northwest Oregon,
washington doing phenomenal,intermountain's doing great,

(34:22):
midwest and Chicago and all thatare doing great.
But nobody wants all of everysection of the Albertsons
company that people who knew thecompany despised.
Northern California was theworst.
They had the biggest unionproblems, pension problems,
merchandising problems, customerproblems, competition problems.

(34:43):
Safeway was the behemoth inNorthern California.
Nobody wanted to go up againstthem and we got this part of the
chain which we hate and theycome and say, hey, we want to
buy this from you.
And we said, and Bob says no,why?
Because we just got it and weknow we can make it worth more
value.
It's like if you went andbought a little house, turned it

(35:04):
into a rental and the windowsare broken and the picket fence
is laying on the ground.
Someone comes and says, hey,I'll buy that from you.
Well, you know they're tryingto get a deal.
So you know, give us six monthsto paint it and put new windows
in and carpet it.
The guy it's a privately ownedfamily company.
It's the son of the founder andhe used to get whatever he
wants and he keeps coming back.

(35:25):
And so finally we enter intodiscussions with him and in
March we end up selling, after alot of back and forth, the
Northern California less than200 stores of our 650 for $595
million.
So we bought the chain for 300,and we sell the worst part of

(35:48):
it eight months later for doubleour money.
Wow, so now our investors go oh, maybe these guys aren't that
dumb, maybe they might know whatthey're doing.
Well, that was a great start.
We were able to give out adividend, roll money back in.
But then, most importantly, isthat over the next seven years
really in the first year weturned sales around.
We got positive.

(36:09):
So we had positive sales withina year Within the next seven
years, from 2006 to 2013, wereturned over two billion
dollars to our investors and wetrimmed it down to the really
192 best stores.
Four billion in sales gotpositive ebitda.
We've paid off pretty much allour debt.
We're debt free and we think,hey, we could just run this

(36:31):
thing, you know, a couple days aweek we'll come in.
Well, I don't golf, but if Igolf, we go golf whatever you do
, because it was just a machinethat was just working really
well.
Um and uh.
Then at that same time, supervalue, who bought the really
good stuff, had had seven yearsof consecutive negative sales
every quarter, yeah, 28 quartersof consecutive negative sales.

(36:54):
And and so they were headingoff a cliff.
And some of their stockinvestors particularly a very
activist stock investor that hadbought a bunch of their stock
came to us and said, hey, intoour board?
Hey, would you look atSuperVacuum and see what you
could do there?
What an incredible story.

(37:15):
And they were in.
We went on due diligence andthey were in such bad shape we
couldn't even finance to buy.
They wanted to sell the wholecompany to us.
Couldn't do it.
What we could finally figureout we could do is buy back the
Albertsons part They'd have tokeep their original company.
But we'd buy back theAlbertsons and we engineered it
and we did this in Wow, whichthey bought for $12.1 billion

(37:43):
right.
So we got a significantdiscount, which we like in the
grocery industry.
So we bought that back andhere's the beautiful story
Within one full quarter ourdivision presidents and store
directors that we kind ofdropped in the best we had,
parachuted in behind enemy lines.
We were positive on sales whichthey hadn't been seven years in

(38:04):
one quarter Wow.
And then we spent quarter afterquarter going eight in those
stores, eight to 10% salesincreases every quarter.
And our investors say to us hey, come back to New York, which
is where we had most of ourmeetings.
We want to talk to you aboutanother deal.
We're hearing through thegrapevine that Safeway who's

(38:24):
been you know phenomenal history, great company but had
flatlined for the last few yearsand had had some challenges.
Just sold off their Canadiandivision and Chicago they're
having to sell because theybought this company called
Dominix and kind of drove itinto the ground and so they're
in trouble.
And we say to them look, wejust did Super 5U, we're trying

(38:47):
to integrate double our size,and you guys want us to go look
at another company.
And they said we'll put up themoney, which is basically, by
the way, the money we gave backto them.
They're not putting any newmoney in.
So far, they're playing withhouse money and so we end up

(39:17):
doing the Safeway deal.
Long story short, they werepublic.
We bought 100% of their stockoff the public market, took them
private and then merged theminto our divisions but kept
their names, which is a mistakeAlbertsons had made is trying to
put the Albertsons name onacquisitions too quickly.
So we kept Safeway or Vons orwhatever the company title might
be in those areas, or whateverthe company title might be in
those areas.
And interestingly, we found outa while later that if a
customer you know went throughan Albertson store in a
particular town in Washingtonand goes I was not happy with
that checker, I'm going to crossthe street and I'm going to go
to Safeway.
I'll show them.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
We go darn, can you so one of the like?
It's an incredible story story.
I've only heard parts andpieces of it, but it sounds like
what are some of the principlesyou can share on the management
side.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
So I wrote an entire um training, um curriculum for
our up-and-coming executivesthat we would bring in and I
call Alberson's LLC secrets,which are not secrets at all.
It's an hour so we don't havetime, but some of the you know

(40:13):
it's very simple stuff.
The first thing I wrote was wewere very good at decomplicating
and I use that word instead ofsimplifying, because, like any
business, we're so complex, sothe complexity is going to be
there.
I consider complications to besomething you layer on top of
complexity to make it hard ordecomplicate something so that

(40:34):
you can't make it simple.
We're moving billions of littlepieces of product into
warehouses, out of warehousesonto shelves, through check
stands and out into customers'cars every week.
That's not easy, and trackingevery penny of those billions of
items.

(40:54):
So it's very complex, but itdoesn't have to be complicated,
which means all the red tape,all the stuff that slow people
down and what you hear is themargin is pretty tight, right.
The margin is pretty tight yes,because there's so many things
that have to happen, so you cansee how You're up to a 3% margin
in many things.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
And then if you've got bad management or something
along the way, it's not hard tosee how you could get upside
down pretty easily.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
Yeah, so I'll give an example of Super Value by.
This IS NOT TO DISPARAGE THEM,but WE WOULD BE TRYING TO DO
THAT DEAL WITH THEM.
Every DEAL HAD TO BE MADE BY ACOMMITTEE.
Some OF THEM WERE WE USED TOSAY IT TOOK US ONE HOUR AND
THREE PEOPLE TO DECIDE, but ITTOOK THEM ONE WEEK AND 30 PEOPLE

(41:37):
TO CONSIDER.
Those ARE THE DIFFERENCES.
How DO YOU DECOMPLICATE A CO?
And those are, you know.
The difference is how do youdecomplicate a complex structure
?
So take away the things thatyou don't have to be done.
But you know, some managementconsultant came in and told
SuperValue or IBM or somebodyelse they had to do Really think

(41:58):
about what does the customercare about?
Do they care about all thisstuff and all those committees
and all that stuff, or do theyjust care about this product?
So decomplicating was one thatwe lived with forever, and so
that meant fewer people, quickerdecisions, closer to the
customer, which is my next one,which is decentralized, which is
that most of the companies thatwe dealt with were centralizing

(42:21):
more and more over the 80s, 90sand 2000s, and some companies
it works perfectly for, likeWalmart, because they want no
variation.
Exactly Everything needs tofeel the same everywhere you go.
But for us what happened wasSuper Value again was
centralizing a lot of theirpurchasing and merchandising.

(42:42):
And so we went to a store inSouthern California, a great
store on I think it was UCIrvine campus a store director,
his.
Basically he's got students andprofessors and people that are
a lot of them are living oncampus, living in these
apartments, et cetera, and theyshipped him a big order of a
hundred dog beds because theygot a really good buy on him

(43:04):
centrally and everybody had tosell 100 dog beds and he's going
what do I do with them?
These are kids in dorms Becausehe wasn't making the decision.
So we push our decisions outinto the division and they push
them out to the stores so thatyou're going to sell different
salsa in Austin, texas thanyou're going to sell in Seattle
Washington.
Well, not if you're centralized, but yes if you decentralize.

(43:31):
So decomplicate, decentralize,treat your vendors like they are
your partner instead of likethey're the enemy.
This is so consistent andreally challenging in industries
to see vendors treated properly.
Put in very simple bonus, bonusplans.
So we would see in our industrybonus plans with sometimes six
or eight or twelve differentthings.
You got to get in the quarteror the year and we did them

(43:53):
quarterly too hard to have lineof sight to how we did quarterly
because we want people to be inwater pipe.
Uh, compartments of a quarter,because we were trying to turn
something around.
You couldn't wait a year, yeah.
So we got rid of annual bonuses, got to quarterly.
We had two levers, that's it.
It's a profit and a sales, andthe profit was the lever and the
sales was just a qualifier.

(44:13):
You've got to get above thisnumber, but then your profits.
What matters?
Simplify your profit structures.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
What about customer service?

Speaker 4 (44:19):
So you know, the thing is that if you're doing
all this stuff right, then allyou're pushing out to the
customer and you're paying themto sell to customers, then you
get out of the way, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Right, because then they want.
Yeah, hey, there's a lot ofstuff to get to, there's a lot
of stuff, but we got us to 2015.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
We did Safeway.
That was a huge effort to bringa great group of people in.
We got some great talent fromSafeway, but we in the end in
2020, we're able to IPO thewhole thing in June of 2020.
And I and my partners over thekind of the year before that,
for a number of reasons, kind ofgot a good group of people in

(45:02):
place.
We still own I still own a lotof equity in that company, but
good people in place so we couldgo on to do our next chapter.
We just had Bob's 80th birthdayin Palm Springs this year.
All of us went to it and westill, to this day, get together
quarterly if possible.
We call it the Albertsons LLCOld Guys Lunch.
Just had one two weeks ago withmy buddy.

(45:24):
So not only did I have anincredible opportunity to work
together we were much moresuccessful financially than any
one of us guessed that we mightbe but also we made these
lifelong friends.
We admire each other, werespect each other and those, to
me, are treasures that are farbeyond.
You know, whether you have an Xamount in your bank account is

(45:45):
the people like you meet alongthe way and get to work with.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Let me.
I want to, I want to.
I want to take you back nowbecause I've known.
I've known you for a while.
One of the very first I'd got totell a personal experience, one
of the I had a.
We had a little get together atmy house and you came and you
walked in and we had a guitarsitting in the front room and
you're like who plays guitar?
And I didn't know you very wellat this time and I said, oh, my

(46:11):
son plays jazz guitar.
And you're like, well, is hehere?
I mean, this is like right,when you walk in the house,
we're like in the middle oftrying to have this party and
I'm like my son and you made adefinite impression on him.
It's come up dozens of timessince then, but you sat with him
and you had him play for youand at the time you were

(46:32):
becoming a guitarist and that'scontinued to be one of your
passions, but the interpersonalconnection.
In a really short time, andy,you made a big impression on him
and and then I've been aroundyou in a lot of different things
.
So what I'm trying to get to aquestion here tell me about what

(46:53):
makes you tick, cause you're apretty unique guy I mean you are
.
You are a leader's leader.
You are people, follow people.
Um, you hear of all the successyou have now and then we're
going to get into what you'redoing since 2020.
But what makes you tick?
Talk about growing up, talkabout where you your
foundational principles, whatmakes you who you are?

(47:15):
Because it's pretty incredibleand that's what I want to dig
into with you.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
Thank you and do any of us know what makes us tick?
Because we're on the insidelooking out.
But I will start with this andI know I shared it with you but
also with a lot of your.
I've listened to people thatyou've had on here, phenomenal
people.
I go out on my walks and myruns and my drives and I'm

(47:40):
listening to your podcast runs,or my drives, and I'm listening
to your podcast and I think theyshare with this, which is that
you start with I start with that.
I believe that we have, you know, what matters to us is really
bigger than just the day-to-daystuff.
I think that we, you know, havethis, um, eternal potential

(48:05):
that goes beyond.
You know I'm going to diesomeday, you're going to die
someday, but we're building foreven beyond that, that we are
endowed with these kind ofabilities and potential to go do
bigger and better and morepositive and more things of
greater value than we realize wecan for the people around us.

(48:28):
And I'm always trying to figureout how do I find people like a
Tommy Elkwist, how do I findpeople that have tapped into
some of that and just listen,learn from them about what is it
that can continue to improveand refine and have fun while
you're doing it right.
Life should be an adventure.

(48:49):
Life should be full ofchallenges that drive happiness
and joy for us and the peoplearound us.
But it shouldn't just be youknow the struggle, or it
shouldn't just be you know achecklist, or it shouldn't just
be a you know a scorecard of whoam I beating and you know, or
did I?
You know, do I have the mosttoys, or whatever it is.

(49:11):
It's really what am I buildingin my life and who I'm trying to
become, and I look at it in akind of a, for a long time, a
five-segment life life.
I spent years, every you knowjanuary, writing out kind of
what I want to do for the nextyear, and it goes all the way
back to my teenage years of youknow, looking at those, these

(49:33):
sections that we all think about, which are our intellectual or
mental, what am I doing to learnthings that are physical?
What am I doing for my physical, body and health?
You know what am I doingsocially to physical, body and
health?
You know what am I doingsocially to, you know, improve
the relationships I have withpeople around me, both the ones
that you know, I love andthey're great, and also the ones
that are challenging andimproving.
So you know the social piece ofit, you know the spiritual

(49:58):
piece, the sort of what's biggerthan just me, you know.
And then finally, of course,the temporal, financial.
How do I, you know, provide formyself and maybe be able to
give back to the broadercommunity from those five things
?
And for a long time I had themas five segments?
I had this breakthrough aboutseven or eight years ago where I

(50:19):
realized that I had it kind ofwrong, where I now drew a circle
with four quadrants in it,which is still the physical, the
mental, the social, thefinancial, and I drew a circle
around that whole thing, whichis what I'd call kind of the
spiritual or the higher value,and then said that should touch

(50:41):
each of these.
So why am I doing this physical?
Am I doing it just to lookbetter on the beach, or am I
doing it because I want thisbody to be able to continue to
work and do things for others?
Why am I doing this financial?
Is it because I want to havethe biggest bank account and the
coolest car, or because I wantthat to touch that outer ring?
So how is my social touchingthat outer ring?

(51:02):
So how is my social touchingthat outer ring?
So if the outer ring istouching those four qualities,
then that drives me to makedifferent decisions and I think
for me, much more healthy, muchmore exciting and positive
decisions about why I'm learning, why I'm growing, why I'm
giving, why I'm earning, why I'mdoing all those things I'm

(51:23):
growing, why I'm giving, why I'mearning, why I'm doing all
those things.
So I like to make really biggoals.
I grew up like a lot of peoplethat you and I meet that have
done well in a pretty lowerincome world, but in some ways
that made me really want toprove myself.
So, while all the other kidswere, I was a cross country

(51:44):
runner and where I was wearingKmart shoes, they were wearing
Nike, which was a cool new brand, you know, and so I'm going.
Okay, I'll show you.
Yeah, and I started that wayand I've probably not quit.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
I think that's a super powerful and one of the
things that comes up.
It's always interesting to mebecause I've never done kind of
a deep dive on some of thisstuff with you.
And then when I sit herelistening to you, I think it's
important for people listeningthat may be younger than us that
when you talk to an AndyScoggin and you find out what

(52:17):
drives you and how you organizeyour life, you're pretty
methodical about payingattention.
You organize your life.
You're pretty methodical aboutpaying attention, like what you
just outlined, the way you planyour year, the way you look at
your life, the way you try tokeep.
I think balance is a hard wordbecause I'm sure there's times
when you were in, when you weredown in San Francisco working a
law firm, and you're working onSaturdays, or sometimes you're

(52:37):
with Albertsons LLC, where youmay not have the time balance,
but you've got the same prioritybalance wrapped around your
goals at all times.
But the point, the bigger point, is we never stop learning, we
never stop growing, we neverstop creating for ourselves, our
family and our legacy.
At this point, andy, whatyou're all about and that growth

(53:00):
is exciting and when you getwith people like you.
I think there's a every timeI'm with you.
We had lunch not too long agobut I left that lunch thinking,
gosh it just.
I love being around people thatmake you think and make you
want to be better.
Right, and that's.
People follow people and theythink, wow, there's just.
I think there's a lot of valuein understanding that when
you're younger, that it's not,there's not a point of arriving,

(53:21):
it's always a growth thing.
You never stop and hopefullythat drive and hopefully it just
gets bigger and maybe with somewisdom, comes later on how you
can reflect a little bit.
I think you said a couple otherthings today, like business,
creating jobs.
I love the story about Bobtelling you it's about the
10,000 jobs.

(53:42):
That's what it's about.
It's also about doing businesswith people that you want to do
business with people you want togrow, with, people that you
want to interact with.
I think of the relationshipsyou must have as you get
together now with the Albertsonsold guys.
I mean, what a life, what alife Did you ever think?

Speaker 4 (54:02):
No, I just worked towards.
But I will say that much ofwhat you just described I didn't
invent.
You know that you didn't inventwhat the best parts of us we
learned it from people that weknew were wise, that sometimes
aren't the flashiest, butthey're just the people that get

(54:22):
stuff done and think in thismuch.
You know higher level, I thinkand you just want to learn from
them and be around them and tryto absorb some of that.
So I'm the product of beingable to be around, or in books
or in person or in videos or inwhatever setting is people that

(54:45):
truly drive you to be.
If you listen and if you put itto work, you know better than
you were yesterday and betterthan and you're going to be
better tomorrow.
I will tell you.
The other thing I think isimportant is to have big goals,
challenges, adventures ahead ofyou and I know that's you With

(55:07):
you and projects I look at and Igo.
I don't even know how he canconceptualize some of the things
that you not only conceptualize, you go and make happen.
These are dreams that mostpeople don't even make into
reality, but every year you'resetting something out there that
, hey, this is going to bereally hard and I want to.

(55:28):
So I've got to prepare myselfphysically or mentally or
whatever it might be to go meetthat next big thing.
And I've watched people that Ireally admire that are always
setting their big annual thing,their big 10 year thing, and
going and getting it done.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah, I think I talked to a lot of people that
don't maybe write stuff down oraren't so goal oriented, um, and
they do, just fine too, but Ican't, I can't imagine living my
life that way, because I thinkit's just always the vision and
what's next and how are we goingto get there?
I also think one of the thingsthat have come up multiple times
today is the importance of thepeople that are with you.
I mean, I think, as you sithere and I can hear it in your

(56:07):
voice as you talk through thesedifferent steps, who was by you
and who came in, and the people,um, ultimately, that's the
richness, is, is, is how and whowe do all this with, um, the
families that become part of ourfamilies, the friendships that
become more than friendships,those bonds that last forever,
and that's the beautiful thingabout what we get to do.

(56:29):
I mean, I think that,ultimately, if I think of
America and the opportunity I'vehad I'm given a talk Thursday
night for Operation MilitaryBlessings and I always get a
little squeamish when I give Idon't know if it's guilt I
almost went to the Air ForceAcademy out of high school and I
didn't, and we had a big legacyin our family of people that

(56:51):
had served in the military.
So when I'm ever asked to gospeak at Mission 43 or go do
something for the military, Ialways just feel inadequate.
It's just part of what I do.
So in preparation this week Ithought I'm going to do
something different and I'vespent the last five days um
talking to.
I had an uncle his name wasuncle Daryl, farmer, and he was
a Lieutenant Colonel, colonel inthe air force and has this

(57:13):
heroic.
He was like the guy for megrowing up that was larger than
life.
I mean Daryl.
Uncle Daryl was.
He was an action figure andI've been talking to his kids
this week and getting picturessent in that I'm going to use in
my talk.
But my point is, if you thinkabout all of us and where we're
born and how we're like, theopportunities that we have and
then the opportunities that areafforded us in this life to do

(57:37):
so many amazing things, the joyis in the journey and the joy is
with the people you're doing itwith, whether it's him in the
military, and I'm hearing theseheroic, amazing stories of how
these became friends forlifelong friends.
The other thing I just learnedabout him this week and I knew
this from a kid.
He lived in Pueblo Colorado andI remember going and visiting

(58:00):
him and you got to remember whenI was growing up this guy was
my this was just was GI Joe.
To me this was the guy thatwould fly these missions into
Vietnam and I had pictures ofhim and I remember when I was a
kid he gave me a model of an F4E, phantom 2.
And I built that model and hewas like he was like bigger than
life.
And then I went to PuebloColorado to visit them with our
family and he was working in aKmart and I remember thinking I

(58:27):
was probably 12 or 13 at thetime.
He's working in a Kmart and hetook me to his store that day
and I watched him.
He had a red I'll never forget.
He had a red vest on and hewalked around the store and
introduced me to all the peoplethere and when I was preparing
for this talk this week, Ilooked and he ended up working
for 22 years at that Kmart afterhe retired from the storied

(58:50):
military career and when Italked to his kids this week,
that part of his life was asimportant, if not more important
, than this storied militarycareer working at the Kmart in
Pueblo, colorado.
So I hear those things and I'mlike man, that's just gosh, just

(59:10):
inspires you to try it and Iwill bet he brought to that job
what he brought to his militarycareer.
I'll bet he did too.
I know he did.
I actually looked up last nightum the comments in his obituary
and almost all of them werefrom people who he had
interacted with.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
That came or I thought, man, there's just, uh,
some good people in this lifethat do some wonderful things
well and you talk aboutrelationships and you know we're
now seeing stories in the wallstreet journal and certain
general and others about thisepidemic of loneliness, and so
one of the great wealths we havethat we need to be very

(59:49):
cognizant of and appreciative ofand grateful for is
relationships, the people thatwe get to spend time with.
People like you that I get toknow, and whenever we get
together it's like, oh, we'retalking about stuff that matters
together and so those aren'tgoing to happen by accident.
So you have to cultivate peopleand take care of them and watch

(01:00:15):
out for them and recognize thethings that they do that are
good and be their cheerleadersand show them love.
Be their cheerleaders and showthem love, because love is kind
of that thing that we don't talkabout in business because, yeah
, we're about P&Ls and balancesheets, but if you don't love
the people you're working with,go find another job.

(01:00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Hey, this went by so fast, but I did want to mention
State Board State.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
Board of Education.
State board of education.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
You did so much you do.
You're on almost every I thinkof the philanthropic things
you're doing, andy, and it's,it's, it's everywhere.
Um, I think you're one of thethought leaders in this place,
everything that matters.
I hear of work you're doing andI just want to tell you thank
you for that.
Can?

Speaker 4 (01:01:02):
I bring that back to what I started with, yeah, which
is I didn't want to come toBoise because I didn't think it
was in.
We got here and found out itwas the most perfect place for
us and our family and I believedand it just really hit me hard
about 10 years in that if youfeel fortunate to be in a place,
wherever that place is, For usit's the Treasure Valley in the

(01:01:24):
broader state of Idaho and thisis where they will bury me,
because I will never leave Is ifyou feel that way and you're
not giving back, then what youvalue you're going to lose.
And so every person who feelsthat way needs to be not just
waiting for the next good thingto happen in your town, but

(01:01:47):
being part of helping to makethat.
And I want to do my littlepiece, like you're doing your
bigger piece, to make where weare.
You know we're living in thislittle bubble of of great stuff
every day.
I got to do a little bit tohelp give back to that so that
my grandkids experience as well.
So I came to a place I didn'twant to necessarily be ended up

(01:02:10):
finding out.
It's the perfect place and Iwant it to be that way for the
next generation and thegeneration after that.
And you only get that if you'rewilling to put in the work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
I love that last thing.
So you founded SCI.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
So that's your capital investment and, uh,
you're having fun.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
One of the other things I love about it is this
idea I mean, there you go, likeyou're Brundage mountain, right,
so you're investing in lots ofthings.
Um, you're investing inbusinesses, you're investing in
real estate and you're takingprobably, lessons and wisdom
learned from a long time.
You're choosing partners thatyou want to do things with and
you're having more fun now thanyou ever have.

Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Yes, yes, I am, I'm having a blast and I'm, you know
, I feel very blessed with that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Yeah, hey, this again went by way way too fast.
We're gonna have to do it again.
This was fantastic.
Thank you for putting these on.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
These going out into the world.
This one maybe no one willlisten to, but they're listening
to a lot of the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
They're phenomenal.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
There's a lot of less than uplifting media going out
in the world, and then there'sthis contingent, like you're
putting together, of stuff thatactually brings positivity into
the world.
I hope, thank you I hope.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
I hope everyone enjoys like I.
I just love this because Ilearn and, um again, as you get
old, you're like what are thethings I want to do with my time
?
This is certainly one of them.
So I love you, man.
Thank you for your example,thank you for what you do for
the state and will always do, uh, you and your wife and your
family.
Thank you so much and keep itup.
I'm honored to be here.

(01:03:48):
Thanks, everybody.

All Episodes

The Untold Story of Albertsons LLC with Andy Scoggin | Ever Onward - Ep. 63

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Untold Story of Albertsons LLC with Andy Scoggin | Ever Onward - Ep. 63