What is Hospitality?

By Leslie Sarasin, President and CEO, FMI

A few days ago, I was waiting to deplane on an FMI business return flight and the gentlemen in the aisle ahead of me was struggling to put on his coat, so I reached up to help him manage the maneuver in the cramped quarters. He turned, smiled and said, “That’s odd, on my previous flight, I helped the guy in front of me in the exact same way.” I laughed and said something about karma and paying it forward, but he responded more seriously, “It’s just nice to know hospitality isn’t dead.” I knew what he meant. With the pace of life getting quicker every day, it can be tempting to try to cut corners, forget the importance of good manners, avoid ensnarement and get to the next thing as fast as possible. But, I believe these time-saving maneuvers must not come at the cost of hospitality.

Without a doubt, our industry is experiencing change and it’s coming at us faster than ever before, but we still have fundamental principles we maintain – hospitable things food retailers are noted for. These identifying factors are service principles we retain to be true to our core, but in the new world of online interactions, we are learning to apply them in new ways and learn what hospitality means to a new generation of food shoppers.

As I see it, there are three necessary virtues in the food retail industry that make it such a noble enterprise:

• Putting the shopper first by providing customers with the information and product options they need to execute their particular “eating well” game plan – for themselves and their families.
• Doing our part to keep the nation’s food supply safe and affordable by religiously performing the numerous, often unnoticed activities and protocols necessary.
• Being a pillar of the community – whether that takes the shape of a team member offering the shopping guest a hospitable smile, collecting money to support a local feeding program, doing whatever it takes to keep the store open during a time of crisis, or being a neighborly beacon of hope in the midst of the chaos and loss.

Customer service, food safety and community support—those are three key values of hospitality that make up the food retail industry. Recently, I was honored to receive the National Capital Area Council, Boy Scouts of America prestigious Hospitality Good Scout Award. During my acceptance remarks, I shared with the audience how these core values are fundamental to our industry. As we look to the future, there are challenges, changes and opportunities before us, but as we make these adjustments, there are some things that must not change and that is our core commitment to hospitality and the community values that keep our world spinning positively and our industry moving forward.