Bill Kiker and Janet Kiker Stephens: Sold on Simplicity
When Bill Kiker was sacking groceries as a 15-year-old high school student more than four decades ago, he had no idea where life would take him. But that early retailing experience ultimately launched a career for Kiker, now president of five Texas Save-A-Lot stores.
“I have spent the last 42 years in the business,” says Kiker, who headed several Safeway stores before that company left Texas in 1987. He then ran stores and was director of training for a small chain until opening his first store—a price impact, large-format Super Save in Weatherford—in 1992. Kiker eventually expanded his operations to four Super Save stores, which he sold in 2011.
Switching to Save-A-Lot
But Kiker was also intrigued by the Save-A-Lot business model, and when the Save-A-Lot in Mineral Wells, Texas, came on the market in 2004, he jumped at the chance to buy the store. He purchased the location from the original owners and, in his words, “fell in love with the simplicity and efficiency of the format.”
That format so impressed the lifelong grocer that he decided one Save-A-Lot was not enough. “We had been talking to corporate about the four [corporate-owned] Fort Worth stores for several years, and in 2012 they agreed to sell them to us,” Kiker says.
The timing was ideal. Kiker’s daughter, Janet Kiker Stephens—who worked at her dad’s Super Save as a young teen and again as a college graduate—was returning to Texas after co-owning and operating a real estate and relocation company and co-managing a technology sales team in Colorado.
“Janet had told me that she wanted to come back into the business after being out for several years,” Kiker says. “I thought that events were falling in place exactly as they should, so we completed the purchase in January [2013].”
Tackling the competition
Operating five stores in a competitive marketplace can be challenging—especially when new competition debuts almost immediately.
“We had a Walmart Supercenter, a Walmart Neighborhood [Market] and a Hispanic format operator open up within 60 days of the [Fort Worth] purchase,” Kiker says.
But an emphasis on high-quality meat and produce, along with the advantages the Save-A-Lot format provides, have helped the stores weather the competitive storm.
“Save-A-Lot allows us to carry some additional items that our customers ask for based on ethnic and local preference,” says Kiker. “We have brought in items like El Mexicano, Blue Bell Ice Cream, and Coke and Dr Pepper instead of Pepsi, along with some other items like La Superior tortillas that are unique to Fort Worth.”
Corporate support is also key. “Save-A-Lot offers training for our management teams, ongoing training and guidance support for my perishable departments, resets, daily advice and guidance for all facets of operations,” Kiker says. “We get excellent support from our district manager with ideas to help us gain market share.”
Expanding the market
Since Save-A-Lot entered the Texas market with the purchase of Texas Tea stores in 1994, the grocery retailer has been on a path of expansion, says Sam Gross, manager, licensed market development for Save-A-Lot. Today, Texas is home to nine corporate and 15 licensed Save-A-Lot stores.
According to Gross, the company has identified some 70 Texas markets that can eventually support 400 stores, including the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, the Houston metro area, Waco, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Lubbock, Huntsville, College Station, Temple, Killeen, San Angelo and the Beaumont-Port Arthur region.
As Texas becomes home to an increasing number of Save-A-Lot stores, Gross says Kiker and Stephens are primed to be part of the expanding Lone Star State marketplace. “Bill has brought a lot of credibility to the Save-A-Lot program with his vast grocery experience and is well-known throughout North Texas as being a very successful grocer,” says Gross. “And Bill and Janet are planning on adding additional Save-A-Lot stores in the near future.”