Mi Pueblo Food Centers has used high-quality products and service to expand from one location in 1991 to now having 18 stores throughout California’s Bay Area.

Juvenal Chavez understands the need to feel accepted when starting fresh in a new country. Like countless others before and after him, Chavez left Mexico for the United States with the hopes of earning some money to bring back to his homeland.

He landed in California in 1984 with his wife and first son, taking odd jobs to make ends meet while enrolling in English classes to better assimilate in his new surroundings. He eventually decided he would stay in California and make a go of it in the United States.

Although he left Mexico as a teacher, Chavez never resumed that career in the United States. Soon after landing steady work with his brother’s grocery business in Northern California in 1986, Chavez realized there were other ways to touch people’s lives on a daily basis outside of academia.

In 1991, Chavez bought a butcher shop in San Jose, Calif., and embarked on creating a place where everyone – especially his fellow Mexican immigrants – felt accepted. The first Mi Pueblo Food Center quickly had lines extending out the door and down the block with customers who believed they finally had a grocer who worked hard to make them feel at home. “Mi Pueblo has been a creation of my vision, dream and commitment to my people,” Chavez explains. “People want to shop for groceries in a place where they feel pride and they feel nostalgia and tradition.

“I envisioned a place where customers feel like they own the environment and are part of something related to them,” he continues. “It’s the experience that is long-lasting and more important than anything else.” It didn’t take long for the formula to catch the attention of consumers. Chavez says in the first two or three months after taking over his first store in 1991, sales topped out at about $25,000 a week.

Four years later, the same 4,000-square-foot location earned more than $250,000 each week. Today, there are 18 Mi Pueblo Food Centers throughout California’s Bay Area that employ more than 2,000 people.

Service is Key
Normally, not being the low-price leader in low-income areas is a death knell for a grocer. But Mi Pueblo Food Centers focuses on making sure the customer has the best experience possible for an otherwise mundane task like grocery shopping. Chavez explains a dedication to service – as well as high-quality bakery, produce and meat sections – keeps customers coming back despite the slightly elevated price points.

“We all begin with the same piece of meat and the same bananas and the same apples,” Chavez notes. “The only difference between me and the others is the price.

“But for that basic need, we had to provide an experience for the customer,” Chavez adds. “The product becomes the secondary issue. Once you do that, the customer becomes very loyal to Mi Pueblo. The only thing the others offer is product, no service and price is their only attraction.”

Grooming New Leaders
To hammer home the significance of customer service, Chavez launched “Mi Pueblo University” – a leadership-training program – several years ago. The goal of this endeavor is to provide Mi Pueblo’s up-and-coming leaders with mentors and coaches to help them reach their potential. The coaches and mentors within this program are senior leaders in the organization who pass on their expertise to newer employees and provide encouragement.

Coaches are expected to teach the skills required to efficiently operate specific departments within each store. For instance, coaches in the butcher shop will teach new employees how to properly cut and package meet.

Mentors, however, are expected to be able to step into any situation and provide a solution for most problems. These individuals remain accessible to all employees to help remove the obstacles that sometimes get in the way of conducting business.

Chavez himself also spends many hours every week in each of his stores to make sure his special brand of customer service permeates the entire work force. Since Mi Pueblo Food Centers are often located in multicultural areas where many languages beyond English can be heard, Chavez reminds employees that respect and a friendly smile are universally understood.

“You don’t have to have skills to provide this environment,” Chavez says. “It’s a commitment, and responsibility comes from there. Mi Pueblo’s slogan is, ‘We make you feel at home.’”

Expanding the ‘Home’    
Customers in new areas will have the opportunity to feel at home soon. Chavez says he plans to open at least six more stores in 2010.

Although he is in a position to retire at any point, Chavez does not see himself slowing down any time soon. “What I’m doing is my passion and an extension of my own life,” he says. “I want to be in every place where there are Latino families in any size community in the country so we can provide our services and goods to them, and provide them in such a way that people will feel proud.”