Sam Parr  ⚪️

Here's the secret: - Grocery wholesaling is a small-margin business. ~5% margins - That means Rick had to focus on efficiency - <2% of +$30 billion worth of orders a year have errors. This is unheard of and their secret sauce. Meaning, a store gets exactly what they ordered

To make that happen, C&S warehouse teams are small and self-managed. This reduces # of supervisors because lineworkers know what to do. To do this, he incentivized his workers well. Workers get bonuses if no errors and pay is docked if there are too many wrong orders.

Like Amazon and AWS, Cohen bought Symbotic to use for C&S, but he's also selling it to other grocers. “Taking waste out is fascinating to me,” Cohen said. “I walk through a warehouse, and everyone sees what’s happening, and I see what’s not happening.”

Bringing tech to a very no tech industry is working for C&S. Cohen certainly has this down-home, family-owned business. But they're VERY tech-savvy and forward-looking.

And lastly, Cohen's interesting because he's frugal and somewhat secretive. He lives in Keene, New Hampshire, a small town, in a $1.5m house. He doesn't put his company's name on the trucks as he likes the low profile.