Mollie Stone’s Market owner and CEO Michael “Mike” Stone gained an appreciation of good food early in his life, thanks to his grandmother.
That early appreciation for food has not waned over the years and has been a key component in Stone’s enduring passion for making Mollie Stone’s a place where people can indulge their passion for food (and drink).
His grandmother and grandfather lived with the Stone family in their San Fernando Valley home, having immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Neither Stone’s grandparents nor his parents had a lot of money, so living in the same house was a necessity.
His grandparents didn’t work outside the home, and Stone’s parents typically worked six days a week. Mike’s mother, Mollie, worked in the grocery business from a young age – first at Boys Market and then at Vons for most of her long career – and his father sold periodicals. So when Mike and his older sister came home from school and some on weekends, they spent time with their grandparents.
“They kind of brought me up,” Stone said. “My grandmother was a great cook and a great baker, so I got an affinity for food and baking and recipes. She just had all the recipes in her head. She would make dinner six out of seven nights a week, and I would help her do that.”
Stone followed his mother’s footsteps into the grocery business. As a child he would sometimes go to work with her and sit in the back room. She spent most of her career in the deli, so he learned at an early age how to slice hams. When he was 15, his mom got him a job at Vons.
He worked as a bagger for two years, then as a clerk and checker. He worked for Vons for about seven years through high school and college. The grocery company asked him to keep working in the store after he got his degree, but he said no thanks.
He did stay in the grocery business, however, taking a job in retail accounting for United Grocers in Richmond, California. He received a job offer from a Thriftway operator that had a couple of stores and, during his tenure there, they doubled their store count to four.
It was while he was there that his life was upended; both his parents passed away within nine months of each other.
“It kind of hit me over the head to want to have a purpose and make a difference in people’s lives,” Stone said.
Making a difference came in the form of opening a natural food store in the Bay Area, in Redwood City, California, in 1986. The store, the first Mollie Stone’s Market – named for his mother – sold only organic and natural foods. The store was seeded with investment from two partners – one a silent partner and one that worked in the business with Stone, Dave Bennett. 
The silent partner had the borrowing power to be able to get a loan to open up the first store, Stone said.
Those early years required a lot of hard work and determination.
“I took every penny I had and put it in the business, and we were working seven days a week for at least three or four years,” he said.
Stone was the produce buyer, which meant he woke up at 11 p.m. to drive a truck to the produce market.
“I would buy the produce, load the produce, deliver it to the store, work in the store all day, get home about 7 o’clock and then do the same thing, so I was only getting about three or four hours of sleep then,” Stone said. “It’s the sacrifice that you have to make to make something work.”
In 1988, Stone got the opportunity to purchase a conventional grocery store, and he realized that combining his organic and natural store with the conventional store would create a destination for more shoppers to find everything they needed in one place.
Over its four decades, Mollie Stone’s Markets has grown to eight stores through additional acquisitions, all within a 30-mile radius in the San Francisco area. Each has its own size, look and personality, based on its locale and the needs of the community’s shoppers.
Desire, passion for learning
Stone said one of his drivers for the Mollie Stone’s business has been a desire and the passion to want to learn. He has traveled extensively, “seeing grocery stores, meeting people, talking to people,” and has picked up ideas that he wanted to try to keep Mollie Stone’s stores as cutting-edge as possible. Some ideas have worked; some haven’t.
Among those that have stuck, the Pacific Heights store was the first food store in the world to have a Starbucks inside. That was back in 1998, and it’s still serving coffee today.
Mollie’s was one of the first stores to offer Instacart service for shoppers. It also was among the first grocers to offer a fresh sushi counter inside its stores and also was one of the first to drive shoppers who arrived on foot or by other means home after shopping via “The Mollie Bus” service at some stores.
In line with its focus on fresh, Mollie’s also was one of the first grocers in the country to employ produce “butchers” to cut fruits and vegetables for customers specific to how they’re going to use them.
“All these different ideas, we’re not afraid to try something,” Stone said. “Ever since I was a kid, that entrepreneurial blood has been in me to want to do something that excites me. I love retail. I love making people happy. And I think the grocery business is about satisfying people. It is so rewarding to satisfy people and get them what they want.”
A lot of people, especially in the areas where Mollie Stone’s operates, find satisfaction in food and entertaining, he said, “so if you can make it better or easier or more impressive and healthier at the same time and provide the quality, I think that’s what it’s about, and that’s what our goal is, to try to make people happy. And have all our employees happy at the same time and have them be engaged and have the passion that we have.”
Second gen fully engaged
The “we” that Stone speaks of includes the second generation of the family. Sons Elliott Stone and Aaron Stone fill key roles in the company – Elliott as chief operating officer, Aaron as VP of special projects.
“I let them decide if they wanted to come in the business, and I think both of them knew they [would],” Stone said.
Starting in their early years, they were in the stores and heard their father talking about the business. Stone said he was still working six days a week when the boys were born.
Though it’s understandable to be hesitant to brag on one’s own children, Stone says his sons have traits that he admires.
“I’m extremely proud of their sensitivity to other people, how they treat other people because here at this company, we’re about ‘you treat people like you want to be treated.’ They really exemplify that, and they’re good with younger people and … they have the affinity for older people, too.”
Both Elliott and Aaron are graduates of the Food Industry Management (FIM) Program through USC’s Marshall School of Business, and both attended Arizona State University. Elliott, who is four years older, is an operations-minded person, Mike said, so he served as a store manager for a number of years before being named general manager and then chief operating officer.
In addition to his role at the company, Elliott serves on the boards of the California Grocers Association and the National Grocers Association.
Aaron is more into strategic thinking and planning and new opportunities, so he is thriving as VP of special projects.
“Both of them have their strengths,” their dad said.
The next 40
Based on his confidence in his sons as well as the Mollie Stone’s executive team, headquarters team and store associates, Mike Stone is optimistic about the future.
“I think the boys are going to take over the company and want to grow it, but be selective in how we grow,” he said. “I think that’s one of the things that has made us successful, picking our spots [well].”
While there’s no question larger corporations can dole out more capital for technology and the like, Stone believes independent grocers can still thrive.
“We can satisfy the communities a lot better than the bigger guys can,” he said, as independents can quickly adapt to what customers are seeking. “We keep changing and investing back into the stores to create new and exciting things for the future.”