Never Shake a Man’s Hand When…

There are people in your life that will never know they taught you something that sticks with you for your lifetime. One thing I will always remember is when Orville Roth, founder of Roth’s Fresh Markets, got out of his chair to shake my hand. “Nice to meet you. Never shake a man’s hand while you are sitting on your can…son…deal?” he said. “Deal sir” as I smiled. That still sticks with me today and ever since then I have always gotten up out of my chair to shake someone’s hand when I meet them.

Today I went to The 22nd Annual Oregon is Home Luncheon, put on by Roth’s Fresh Markets. That same fantastic man who taught me that lesson over a year ago was greeting every person who walked in the front door with a handshake (There must have been over 600 people in attendance). Now that is what I call customer service and a man who lives by “do as I say AND do as I do”. He took the stage after we ate a feast of quality food grown in Oregon and talked about the four pillars, or the “four legs of a chair”, that make his managerial style work.

Take Care of the Customer: The Customer is always right…(he proceeded to expand his smile) “because there are more of them than you.”

Take Care of the Employee: They are also your customer and should be treated so (every one of his employees has health insurance and out of their ten store managers they have put in more than 268 collective years working at Roth’s Fresh Markets.)

Take Care of the Vendor: Always pay your bills on time (On top of that, he had his top vendors there for free at the luncheon.) 

Take Care of the Community: Always give back to provide good jobs to local people. (This one they don’t merely meet satisfactory levels…no… this one they blow out of the water).

At the luncheon Roth’s handed three local non-profits each a $10,000 check. This is minimal in their efforts of what they do year round, especially for Special Olympics Oregon. Each year they put on the “Roth’s Round Up” and they, along with their customers, help raise more than $30,000 for Special Olympics Oregon just through that program. Not to mention all the other donations they give and food they supply to handfuls of organizations across the state.

Each table was pilled high with foods that made your taste buds smile. Baked caramel corn, mango habanero potato chips, coconut water and for dessert… Oregon grown and made strawberry shortcake! They encouraged everyone to take as much food as they wanted after the program was over. All that was left they donated to the Food Bank. Let’s just say everyone left happy!

The luncheon was top notch. A fantastic speaker wowed us as he talked about battling cancer and summiting Mt. Everest. Athlete, Travis Koski, moved everyone with his speech on what Special Olympics Oregon means to him and how he feels accepted and energized because of SOOR’s year round programs. (You might know that I am a crier… let’s just say I shed a few tears today!)

It is inspiring to see an independent grocer, the Roth family and all the employees care so much about their local community. I learned a lot today and left work feeling “jazzercised” about wanting to support local businesses and non-profits.

Life Lesson: Along with many others, I feel lucky I met Orville over a year ago. His energy and passion are infectious and his love for his family sticks out like a shinny car in a dirty derby race! After all the great thing I learned today I want to share with you a mans wise words that will stick with me throughout my lifetime “Never shake a man’s hand, while sitting on your can.”