Shoppers will find a blend of heritage and progress when shopping Klein’s Family Market’s nine ShopRite stores in Maryland. Whether shopping a Klein’s store in a larger city like Baltimore or a smaller town like Cardiff, customers will find a broad selection of Maryland-grown and -made products (and everything else they need) in modern stores featuring the latest in technology.
Celebrating 100
It’s no wonder heritage is strong at Klein’s Family Market; it’s been forged over the course of 100 years. The enterprise began as a farm store in Fallston, notes Marshall Klein, a member of the fourth generation at Klein’s, currently serving as president.
Marshall’s great-grandfather Maurice “Mo” Klein operated the farm/general store with his son Ralph. When Ralph was drafted into the Army during World War II, they decided to close the store, and Mo and wife Sara moved back to Baltimore City. When Ralph got out of the Army, they went back into retail, opening this store in the town of Forest Hill. Forest Hill is in Harford County, same as the Fallston store. Ralph and his wife Shirley – who was not a cookies-and-milk type grandma but a savvy businesswoman who used red ink on reports to circle numbers that weren’t up to par, Marshall recalls – lived right up the street from the store. The couple had three sons who all worked in the business, Andy, Michael and Howard. Two of the sons, Andy (Marshall’s father) and Howard are deceased; Michael continues as chairman and third-generation owner of the company.
Marshall works with his sister Sarah Klein as well as cousins Stephen, Jacob and David Klein as members of the fourth generation. Marshall’s 8-year-old daughter is the oldest member of the fifth generation.
“She works a little bit but not super productive just yet,” Marshall says with a laugh.
Grocers since ’79
In 1979, the family opened its first true grocery store in Forest Hill, not far from where the family’s farm/general store had been located. So, even though they have technically been in the traditional grocery business for not quite half of their 100 years, they have been celebrating the milestone this year by showing gratitude to customers and team members.
“We’ve had several selling events throughout the year where we’ve been able to offer additional sales and programming, really just trying to say thank you for the communities that have supported the company in the past 100 years,” Klein said. “We tend to be pretty lowkey people in general, so this has been a bit unique for us to do. We’re trying to really focus on our customers and our team.”
One thing Klein is not lowkey about is his conviction that the company would not be in business today had the family not made the decision in 2009 to become part of the supermarket cooperative Wakefern Food Corp.
Prior to that time, Klein’s Food Markets were supplied by another wholesaler, but “it became very apparent to us that they were no longer able to support independent retailers in a way that would allow us to be competitive,” he said. “And that’s why the family made the decision… to join the Wakefern Food cooperative.
“That was one of the most crucial decisions in the history of the company and has really allowed us to continue to operate,” Klein said. “There’s no way we would be in business had we not made that move, [giving us] the ability to leverage buying power with the other Wakefern members and to take advantage of real technology in the retail space due to the size of Wakefern.
“That was something that we had never even imagined we’d be able to do, and it’s been absolutely critical for the survival and our ability to thrive,” he said.
A work in progress
With Wakefern being based in New Jersey, the ShopRite banner – which Klein’s adopted for all its stores in Harford and Baltimore counties – was not a household name down in Maryland. Klein acknowledged that it’s taken a while to establish the brand in Maryland, noting, “we’re still growing the brand in the state.”
But shoppers have responded well to what has occurred at store level since Klein’s joined the co-op.
“Changing the name on the front was less impactful than the tools we got by joining Wakefern,” he said. “You know, I don’t think we do a lot more business because we’re ShopRite versus a Klein’s; I think we do more business because, one, we have significantly better pricing – being able to lower a lot of prices and add additional variety and selection with the Wakefern program – and secondly, because we’re able to have a much better operation with technology. Whether it’s customer information, inventory information, financial information, all the things. We were also able to really grow our digital commerce; there’s no way I’d be able to do that if I was not with the cooperative.”
Klein’s private label program now centers on ShopRite’s bowl & basket brand, “really what I would consider a first-class brand throughout the entire store,” Klein said. “It’s more than just what you would think of as private label … like a grocery or dairy department [brand]. It’s private label organic chicken, it’s private label salads, it’s private label lunchmeat.”
Klein’s now enjoys a level of quality and continuity across perishable departments that it didn’t have before, he said, as well as a brand that is unique from competitors.
Prior to Wakefern, if Klein’s had wanted to sell all-natural organic chicken, the supply options would have been limited, and the price likely would have been double, he said.
“Being able to have that in a private label – where we can control the quality spec and the brand spec and the packaging spec – has been really crucial for us to grow those areas of the business,” Klein said.
Another point of differentiation is in the local products Klein’s carefully curates.
“There’s a strong drive within our company to support local brands and products in ways that our competitors cannot, because we’re a bit of a smaller company. It’s important to us, and we make it a priority,” Klein said, adding that David Klein is in charge of the local product initiative. “He finds and vets local producers and vendors, whether it’s somebody selling watermelons or somebody making granola or somebody raising cattle. We bring them into the stores and highlight their brands and their families and their companies within our footprint. I think that allows the shopping experience to feel more personal and to be a little bit different than what you see other places.”
Being part of the Wakefern cooperative also has helped national brand sales, as Klein’s can now take advantage of vendor funding and promotional programs “to help really drive our business.
“Having that ability to really partner with larger companies and build programs to drive customer traffic and help run our stores has been vital,” said Klein, who serves as an executive member on the Wakefern board.
Relationships with fellow Wakefern retailers is another benefit of membership in the co-op.
“That’s another huge piece of being part of the cooperative – we’re all in this together,” Klein said. “Members are very engaged and active in helping other members. And we saw that from the moment we joined, whether it was converting our stores [to the ShopRite banner] or sharing best practices.”
Wakefern forms committees to vet products and programming, and members are welcome to serve on them.
“That’s really where you can meet other members and share best practices and model things and learn from them,” he said.
Tech frees team members
Klein’s has about 1,200 team members across its stores but “wish we had 1,300 associates,” Klein said.
To utilize its valuable team members in the most effective way possible, Klein’s has fully embraced technology, as noted.
“We have the ShopRite app. We have a loyalty program, digital shelf labels. We have Caper Carts… Anything and everything that a modern supermarket would be offering to their customers, we have… I mean, we have robots scanning shelves. We’re big believers in technology,” Klein said.
The digital shelf tags are a big labor saver for the company, allowing staff do “maybe more important work than hanging tags,” although accurate pricing is certainly crucial.
Tally robots from Simbe Robotics cruise the aisles to verify the pricing on the labels and check for out-of-stocks. The technology frees up associates to focus on customers.
“We’re able to take those 24 hours and reinvest them in other areas of the business, so we’re not laying anyone off,” Klein said. “We’ve been trying to leverage technology where we can to upskill our people, to be able to find ways where they can be more impactful to the business so we can pay them more and then we can retain them better. We try to remove some of the tasks that are very mundane and repetitive with technology.”
As a family-owned business, Klein’s is open to hiring members of the same family.
“That’s very prevalent throughout our company, and it’s really important for us,” he said. “I think it is my obligation to provide opportunity for the people that work for me. So we are constantly looking to promote within our own company. Retention and opportunity are really crucial for myself and my family. We are constantly investing both in pay and benefits. And I’m proud to say that we have been able to have well-above-market annual increases every year.”
Speaking of family, Klein said a legacy of philanthropy has been passed down over the years, based on a keen awareness that “our business would not exist but for our customers.
“And it’s incredibly important to my family to support the organizations that they care about and that are also supporting the communities we operate in.”
The Upper Chesapeake Healthcare System and other larger institutions that support the whole community receive support from Klein’s, as do education and religious organizations, “things that … sort of cut across no matter where you live, no matter what you’re doing, impacting your life.”
Growth in view
A major remodel has been completed at the Klein’s ShopRite on Main Street in Bel Air, along with a minor remodel on the second store in the town, at the Festival at Bel Air shopping center.
And Klein’s is planning to add stores as well.
“We are actively looking for more sites; we’re actively looking to grow the company,” Klein said. “We are committed to this business, and we are looking to grow when we can find the right opportunity.”
The company’s stores range from about 30,000 square feet to a couple that are more than 65,000. They lie within about a 2.5-hour radius.
Klein feels the company is in a sweet spot of still being family owned but having all the benefits of being part of a co-op.
“The thing that really sets us apart is the fact that we’re still a family business; the secret sauce for Wakefern is that you have the ability to have an offering that is on par with a national or super-regional chain in terms of pricing, product promotion, technology, customer experience – and you still have local ownership,” he said.
The Klein family members continue to be actively engaged in the stores.
“We’re in the stores every single day, and having that level of accountability and drive and customization to the communities that you’re serving tied with the power of $25 billion cooperative really allows us to be different,” Klein said.
“We have the flexibility as independent operators and as entrepreneurs to serve both of those [urban and rural] communities and not make a more cookie-cutter model, where we’re forcing the customer sort of to the average,” he continued. “We’re able to recognize different needs that people have and different desires that they have and can build our stores accordingly.”
Klein said that the joy of being part of a family business is that it is “both very personal and very much larger than ourselves. We view these stores as almost like our houses. You’re coming into our home, and we take a lot of pride in the ability to take something that our family has been in for quite some time. To work with my sister and cousins and uncle to make it our own and to honor the legacy they have, but also build on it to make it better, we find a tremendous amount of joy in that.”
[RELATED: Wakefern Highlights Growth At Annual Shareholders’ Meeting]