While he may have climbed the proverbial ladder, Aric W. Reicks understands the importance of all of the rungs and serves as a mentor to high school and college students who are key to the future of the business and the industry at large.

<div> <p paraid="1792244784" paraeid="{a60d1a4c-5db7-48f7-88d5-e40a57f378b6}{162}"><strong>Category&nbsp;B:&nbsp;Aric W. Reicks <br /> Fareway Stores, Inc.,&nbsp;Boone, Iowa&nbsp;</strong></p> </div> <div> <p paraid="1104465870" paraeid="{a60d1a4c-5db7-48f7-88d5-e40a57f378b6}{190}">The work-your-way-up&nbsp;model&nbsp;has proven successful&nbsp;for Aric Reicks, who started at Fareway when he was&nbsp;just&nbsp;16 years old&nbsp;and is now&nbsp;the manager of a store in Boone, Iowa.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <h5>Forging the Workforce of the Future&nbsp;</h5> <p paraid="784847169" paraeid="{a60d1a4c-5db7-48f7-88d5-e40a57f378b6}{252}"><img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/image-2-aric-provides-excellent-customer-service.tmb-medium.jpg?sfvrsn=bd878767_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="Image 2 Aric provides excellent customer service" title="Image 2 Aric provides excellent customer service" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" />While he may&nbsp;have&nbsp;climbed the proverbial&nbsp;ladder, he&nbsp;understands the importance&nbsp;of&nbsp;all of&nbsp;the rungs and&nbsp;serves as a mentor to&nbsp;high&nbsp;school and college students&nbsp;who are key to the future of the business and the industry at large.&nbsp;That kind of total&nbsp;perspective&nbsp;has served Reicks well in his many roles at Fareway,&nbsp;where&nbsp;began&nbsp;in high school at&nbsp;the&nbsp;company&rsquo;s&nbsp;New&nbsp;Hampton&nbsp;location and&nbsp;continued&nbsp;in various positions in Carroll,&nbsp;Sioux&nbsp;City and Fort&nbsp;Dodge.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Since his promotion to store manager at the Boone location&nbsp;in 2017, he has forged strong relationships with his team,&nbsp;often&nbsp;working side by side&nbsp;with them during&nbsp;training supporting the company's retail internship program with two to three internship hires per summer.&nbsp;He is a store management&nbsp;liaison&nbsp;for the development of&nbsp;a new pre-apprenticeship&nbsp;program for high school students, a role in which he brings his own relevant experience.&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p><img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/face-of-fareway-in-the-boone-community30549bbc6b5848d19c600fa921189fd1.tmb-medium.jpg?sfvrsn=429afd96_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="face of Fareway in the Boone community" title="face of Fareway in the Boone community" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" /></p> <h5>Spearheads Innovation</h5> <p >Reicks thinks like a shopper, too, offering new categories and expanding the store&rsquo;s to-go meal options. In line with the company&rsquo;s focus on fresh, he recently spearheaded a complete renovation of the produce department that spanned display concepts, fixtures and technologies as well as new offerings. That upgrade has resulted in real financial gains for the department, and Fareway has since made similar upgrades in more than 120 locations based on the Boone store&rsquo;s sales metrics and customer satisfaction.</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="1481212164" paraeid="{e04fedd5-2f78-4a5c-bd77-bf14853c19a0}{199}">His public interactions&nbsp;go&nbsp;well beyond the brick-and-mortar.&nbsp;At&nbsp;the area&rsquo;s Annual Ag Omelet Fundraiser, you&nbsp;can find him behind the omelet station,&nbsp;making and folding perfect omelets. During Boone's Pufferbilly&nbsp;Days, he and his staff build a float for the parade and volunteer at a nonprofit food stand&nbsp;that benefits community reinvestment.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="577144549" paraeid="{e04fedd5-2f78-4a5c-bd77-bf14853c19a0}{249}">While&nbsp;he&rsquo;s&nbsp;clearly a&nbsp;people&nbsp;person,&nbsp;Reicks&rsquo;s&nbsp;number are&nbsp;solid.&nbsp;Since he&nbsp;stepped&nbsp;into the&nbsp;manager&nbsp;role, the profitability of the Boone store has jumped by double digits.&nbsp;He&nbsp;regularly&nbsp;provides&nbsp;metrics&nbsp;for&nbsp;initiatives&nbsp;and collects feedback from his team and customer base to make the most informed decisions.&nbsp;He&rsquo;s&nbsp;got a knack for technology,&nbsp;&nbsp;helping develop several&nbsp;large-scale&nbsp;IT projects,&nbsp;including&nbsp;both&nbsp;internal and&nbsp;external programs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="257301090" paraeid="{144a624f-f424-4d18-b740-87f98f87dbe2}{64}">Having spent his entire&nbsp;career&nbsp;there, Reicks&nbsp;is close&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Fareway&nbsp;organization.&nbsp;In a literal way,&nbsp;his store is the&nbsp;closest&nbsp;to the&nbsp;company&rsquo;s&nbsp;main campus, and it&nbsp;often a live&nbsp;test&nbsp;site.&nbsp;In that&nbsp;sense, as he&nbsp;has&nbsp;continued&nbsp;to make his way up,&nbsp;Reicks has&nbsp;also&nbsp;come full circle&nbsp;</p> </div> <div> <p paraid="1241845222" paraeid="{144a624f-f424-4d18-b740-87f98f87dbe2}{140}"><menu><span style="font-size: 24px;">&ldquo;His employees share that they enjoy working for Aric because he simply does not ask for a task to be completed but explains the reason and purpose behind the job. His staff are constantly challenged to raise the bar not only in customer service, but in the metrics.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></menu></p> </div> <div> <p paraid="992440815" paraeid="{144a624f-f424-4d18-b740-87f98f87dbe2}{148}">&nbsp;</p> </div>

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