CEOs You Should Know Mike Simoncic EDITED The 99 Store

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Let's meet Mike Simonsik, who isCEO of the ninety ninth Sense Only stores,
and I can only imagine he's prettypleased with how his Michigan Wolverines are
doing this season. Mike Simonsek,how you doing today? I'm doing great
and it's great to be a Wolverine. Now I have to ask you,
are you from Michigan because I knowyou went undergraduate and graduate you know,

(00:22):
go blue. So how does Universityof Michigan figure into your life story?
I grew up in the Detroit soI was a Michigander and lifelong Michigan fan
and proud to be an alum.And I like to joke though I have
two degrees and no football tickets,So I got to work on that.
Anyone who is from Detroit or knowssomeone from Detroit knows. The operative question

(00:45):
is always what high school did yougo to? My mother went to cast
High School, cast Tech wonderful,wonderful. You know. I went to
a school called Detroit Catholic Central,Yes, but near cass both West side
schools and so no cast Well andother schools in my family was from the
West side of Detroit. I remembermany summers in Detroit. I think that's

(01:08):
going to lead us into our conversationwatching how that city changed, watching how
that state changed, watching how commercein the Big Three change. What did
growing up in Detroit slash Michigan teachyou about business? You know, I
think a few things. I thinkone it's resiliency. But it also helped
lead me to the ninety nine store. You know what, I grew up

(01:30):
in Detroit. I grew up aroundpeople who worked for a living. I
had grandparents that I would say,to be honest, you know, we're
too hard working people. They didn'thave a lot of extra dollars, if
you will, to throw around.Quite frankly, I'm part of a first
generation that went to college, somy family was working class folks. I

(01:53):
know what it's like to make abudget stretch, and I know what it's
like for your grandparents or your momor your dad do want to make a
holiday special, to want to makeyour life special, and they need to
do it on a very reasonable budget. And that so drove me to the
ninety nine That's what's been a connectionfor me. Here at the ninety nine
store, we focus on creating opportunitiesfor people of all backgrounds all incomes to

(02:20):
really be able to enjoy a holiday, to be able to put healthy food
on their plates, to be ableto get wild kind of fund products at
an enormously affordable, extreme value,great prices. That's what we're here for,
and we're here for the families.California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada.
We're here to help our families beable to enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas,

(02:45):
but also to make that dollar stretchevery day every week. I know,
as someone who grew up in California, I always run into people who have
those first hand, anecdotal personal referencesstories for ninety nine cents only stores.
And I think depending on where yougrow up, you may encounter ninety nine
cent only stores at different times.Do you remember the first time that you

(03:08):
walked into one of the ninety ninecent only stores? Yeah? I think
the thing is it blew me away. I was shocked, first of all,
an amazing amount of fresh product,fresh produce, full service grocery store,
and then on top of that allkinds of general merchandise, holiday or
seasonal products, all kinds of partyproducts. I mean, I was amazed

(03:32):
at how much you still can getfor ninety nine cents, and then how
many other great deals are still available? So what blew me away is how
much the ninety nine can offer peoplefrom a fresh strawberries to ornaments for their
Christmas tree, all at ninety ninecents or less many days, and I
will say this, we have alot of great products at multiple price points,

(03:53):
but there's great value in what wedo. You touch upon something I
think is very important to high soI want to go back and get it
ninety nine cents only stores from whereI sit has a very specific challenge given
the very name of the business.You talked about how there are a lot
of great deals and great products whichare available for ninety nine cents. But
let's be honest, there are economicforces like inflation, there are industry and

(04:15):
competition forces that you contend with.How do you go about evolving this business
given that changing landscape which you can'tcontrol. Yeah, first, we're going
to continue to offer literally hundreds andhundreds of products at ninety nine cents or
less. So we continue to bringa tremendous amount and tremendous number products at

(04:38):
the ninety nine cent price point.However, the ninety nine store is really
going to stand and does stand fornormous value on things that are essential to
your life, whether that's fresh produce, grocery items, whether it's scotch tape
or duct tape, whether it's balloonsfor a party or decorations for a party,

(05:00):
you will deliver enormous value. Sometimesthat have value'll be at a dollar
ninety nine, sometimes have values attwo ninety nine. Eighty percent of our
items are at four ninety nine orless, and we deliver extreme value or
great value on items that people trulyneed and want and use every day.
Something that you said which really speaksto me, the ninety nine sense only

(05:21):
stores. They offer the full groceryexperience. And when you're talking about sometimes
economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, there is adearth of grocery stores. There's a dearth
of meaningful food products. How doesthat figure into your overall strategy as far
as the location and placement in cities. Yeah, we want to go and

(05:42):
be in parts of the cities wherepeople need us, where they're looking and
need to stretch their dollars, wherethere's often food deserts and non opportunity,
and we bring to the communities weserve twenty five percent of our business.
Think about this where two billion dollarbusiness, five hundred million dollar business and
fresh product everything from strawberries and blueberriesto potatoes and onions and bagged avocados for

(06:05):
ninety nine cents. We all fullservice deli. My breakfasts are all from
the ninety nine store. I useyogurt, I use fresh fruits. We
often have granola grains, name brands, all of it. It allows people
to have an amazing opportunity to eathealthy, wholesome at enormous value, and

(06:28):
our pricing is outstanding and you canthen fill it in with more grocery items
and really find those essential items tomake your life better. I know you
have not been at the Helm fora long amount of time, and sometimes
you may not know what the futuremay hold. But if you were to
have your way and there aren't economicforces which may fight against you, what

(06:49):
type of growth or changes do yousee in the next five ten years.
We're going to be the leader inAmerica at value and val We will differentiate
ourselves and that no one will bringmore value across the spectrum of fresh and
grocery products and amazing curiated seasonal offeringslike our Halloween product was amazing day of

(07:14):
the debt. When you go onour store today for Christmas, there are
literally thousands of items at ninety ninecents or a dollar ninety nine or less
to decorate a Christmas tree, decorateyour house, provide gifts. So we
will be the leader in bringing valueacross fresh product as well as general merchandise

(07:35):
and seasons and party. We willbe your destination. What people will think
of the ninety nine, They'll say, I go there every week for my
fresh product and my grocery, andthen when the big seasons come along or
big occasions, whether it's a graduationparty, whether it's Halloween, whether it's
Christmas, I go to the ninetynine. It's birthday parties. You go

(07:56):
to the ninety nine because it's theperfect place to stock up, be able
to deliver an amazing party for yourfriends or family at an enormous value.
One of the things I mentioned werethe competition forces things that may go on
in your industry where there are otherbusinesses within your space. We're fighting for
seemingly the same customers. But there'ssomething else. You listed off the states

(08:18):
in which you could find the ninetynine cent only stores, including California.
There's also a labor discussion where wehave minimum wages which are rising in various
states, and that presents a differentobstacle or challenge depending on which state you
may be. You know, Californiamay be fifteen to eighteen dollars an hour,
but if you go to Alabama,it may be seven or eight dollars
an hour. Does that figure intohow you want to grow and branch out

(08:41):
this business? You know, we'rea California based company. We love doing
business in California, and you knowwhat, we want our associates to do
well too. So we're going tobe and we want to expand in California,
and we will most likely expand inother states, but we love being
in California and we want that's bestfor our associates. We want what it's

(09:05):
best for our customers. So weembrace being in California. We embrace the
wages and pay scales of California becausewe want our associates to do well.
Our associates are also our customers andwe want them to do well. So
for us, it's all about focusingon our associates, our customers and creating

(09:26):
that destination where people can get essentialproducts and great value on stuff they buy.
Every day, we'll get you outof bed in the morning. Customers
and the people I work with andour associates. For me, it's personal.
I really feel like if you goback and look at my background,
you'll find out somewhat about thirty yearsago, I was working for a nonprofit

(09:50):
organization to try called Focus Hope.It was a group that focused on how
we bring people of different races together, how we tackle poverty, how we
make a different in people's lives,and that has been a motivation of my
entire career. Yes, we wantto do well in business, but we
really want to do well for people. And when we come to the ninety

(10:11):
nine, we're helping the customers whoneed and want to help the most.
And we have good, hard workingassociates. It's amazing to go in our
stores and meet people who have beenworking in our stores ten twenty years,
and we have a great team herein our corporate office. They care and
again they care about our customers.They care about each other. So it
gets me out of the bed issimply this, let's take care of our

(10:35):
customers. They need us. Theywant to be able to make their family
events special, they want to beable to eat healthy, they want to
be able to stretch that dollar.And we have associates who care about them,
and we have associates here in corporatedin stores, and if we all
care about each other, we canmake this better. Before we started this
conversation in Ernest, you remarked thatpreviously you had gone to a football game,

(10:56):
and I assumed it had to dowith University of Michigan Wolverines. And
I think the most successful people havethat balance where they may work very hard,
but there's also a non work aspectto their life outside of your alma
mater or maybe going to football games. What do you compliment your life with
family. I spent this weekend withmy son, my wife, my two

(11:20):
sons, mom, dad, brother. Family is everything. Fortunately, when
I chose to move to California,my brother in law and his family were
here. I moved two blocks forthem, so I get to see my
niece who's a senior in high school, got to really get closer to my
nephew who's a senior at San DiegoState. Everything's about family and of course

(11:45):
friends, so those are the thingsI enjoy the most is time with family.
Do you miss those Detroit winters becauseI know what they're like. I
mean, they are no joke.And as I get older, I have
no desire to visit Detroit in thewinter anymore. How about you? You
know, I'll tell you. WhenMichigan was playing Michigan State a couple of
weeks ago as a night game,I was sitting outside here with the sun

(12:09):
setting at four thirty and watching everybodybundled up and East Lansing, and I
thought to myself, I think I'min a good spot. I'm really enjoying
all elements of California. What isyour metric? What is your yardstick for
being on pace to either ensure thatninety nine cent only stores continues to be

(12:33):
or becomes what you want it tobe. What is your metric or yardstick
serve more customers? I know we'rea good business when we keep growing the
number of customers that shop us.So it's all about being there, being
that essential retailer for customers, andwe want to grow in the number of
customers who shop the ninety nine Howoften do you find yourself going into individual

(12:54):
locations in different states, because Iknow uniformity of a product and presentation is
very important for most businesses, especiallybusinesses which are in multiple states. How
often are you in stores? One, I'm in stores every week, often
a couple times a week. Theother thing we've done, too, is
we've created a virtual review process,so literally between physically being in stores every

(13:20):
week, I'm also virtually visiting storesalmost daily. But there's a high frequency
of visits, so in stores everyweek in person and virtually. And the
nice thing what we've done is wedo multiple elements now where we touch all
three hundred and seventy seven stores withsimultaneous virtual reviews to make sure we got

(13:41):
our products set right, our floorset right, every store checks in.
And now we're also you know,leveraging technology. We have group chats,
all store group chats going all weekend, people sharing their highlights. We have
an internal phrase we use like let'smake some noise in our store in all
three hundred and seventy seven stores areengaged. I wonder there's probably an idea

(14:05):
of what the job encompasses. Beforeyou get in and get your elbows greasy
and dirty, and you get yourknees dirty, and then there's the reality.
What was the biggest either surprise,pleasant or otherwise from when you accepted
the position to when you got moving. I think the biggest, if you

(14:26):
will surprise or the biggest honestly changefrom when I started today is the customer
became more personal for me. Oneof the things we did as leaders is
we all went and worked in stores. I went and it was a cashier
for a day in our stores,and I got to see our customers interact

(14:48):
with them, and at a muchdeeper level. I actually got to spend
a lot of time on our associates, and it was amazing to me,
you know, the number of ourcashiers who actually knew our customers. I
just it became more personal that whoour customer is in the important role that
ninety nine can play in making ourcustomers' lives better. That really is the

(15:09):
biggest takeaway. Let me leave youwith this question. I know that there
is someone who is listening right nowwho either has the same passion as you
do, maybe at a different classor station in life than you, but
wants to be where you all,wants to change the world in a retail
sense, or wants to be successfulmaybe in some other industry. What type

(15:30):
of advice would you give for someonewho may be just coming out of college
and can't necessarily see how to getwhere you are, and you want to
help him or her get there.Yeah, work hard, care, want
to be good, want to makean impact. You need to work hard.
Life is not easy. You've gotto care. But what it care

(15:52):
means it won't always go your way. It won't always you won't always get
there on the first try. Butyou care to be good to make an
impact. So tell any young personor any person at any point in your
career having willingness to work, reallycare about what you're doing, and keep
grinding away until you get there.It can happen, and it will happen.

(16:12):
Mike Simonsek, CEO of the ninetynine Sense only stores, He is
definitely one of the CEOs. Notonly you should know, but you must
know. Mister Smallsik, thank youso much for coming on today. Thank
you and thanks for having the opportunityto talk. I loved it. I
had a lot of fun. Andlisten, let's have a great, great
Thanksgiving for all our folks out there, and let's help them have a great Thanksgiving.