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How many convenience store chains give out service pins on an employee's one-year anniversary?
More to the point, how many have clerks employed for close to a year?
Employee retention in convenience stores just doesn't happen. Clerks are hired and then quit as fast as Big Gulps selling in August. Ironically, the convenience store business is predominant in America's often job-strong southern belt from San Diego east to Savannah. The weather brings people out of their cars and into quick stop stores.
But keeping people past the next shift is a goal at the 12-store, locally-owned Green Valley Grocery chain.
"The convenience store industry has a reputation of hiring a clerk that lasts 30 days, tops. The three-day wonder," said GVG President Richard Crawford.
This comes from a man who came up through the ranks in 7-11 management until he and his wife opened their first convenience store, at Sunset and Green Valley Parkway, in 1978. It was, Crawford recalled, the first independent convenience store in the valley.
GVG has set a goal of keeping people for at least one year. The average length of employment now for its 95-odd employees is about nine months. Tougher...