The first Abrahams Grocery Store was started in 1967 by Bill Abraham and his sister Doris. They…

The first Abrahams Grocery Store was
started in 1967 by Bill Abraham and his sister Doris. They used a small
inheritance to start a small grocery store in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and
it was immediately successful. The location was good, and both Bill and Doris
had winning personalities and a serve the customer attitude. Abrahams
rapidly growing number of customers enjoyed an abundance of good meats and
produce, for which Abrahams became well known. By 2007, Abrahams had over 200
stores. Company headquarters moved to downtown Atlanta to supervise stores
throughout the

The first Abrahams Grocery Store was
started in 1967 by Bill Abraham and his sister Doris. They used a small
inheritance to start a small grocery store in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and
it was immediately successful. The location was good, and both Bill and Doris
had winning personalities and a serve the customer attitude. Abrahams
rapidly growing number of customers enjoyed an abundance of good meats and
produce, for which Abrahams became well known. By 2007, Abrahams had over 200
stores. Company headquarters moved to downtown Atlanta to supervise stores
throughout the southeastern United States. There were four regional managers
responsible for about 50 stores each. Within each region, there were four
districts of 12 to 13 stores each. Because the stores specialized in excellent
meats and produce, there was a separate meat department manager, grocery
department manager, and produce department manager within each store. The
grocery department manager also served as the store manager, but this person did
not have direct authority over the meat department or the produce department.
The store meat department manager reported directly to a district meat manager
specialist, and the store produce department manager reported directly to a
district produce manager specialist. The store manager (who is also the grocery
department manager) reported directly to a district store supervisor. This
direct line of authority for each store department provided excellent quality
control over the meat, produce, and grocery departments within individual
stores. However, there was growing dissatisfaction within the stores. The
turnover of store managers was high, mostly because they had no control over
the meat and produce departments within their stores. Coordination within stores
was terrible, such as when a store manager decided to promote a sale on Coke
products as a loss leader. Hundreds of cartons of Coke were brought into the
store for the big sale, but the meat and produce department managers would not
give up floor space to display Coke cartons. The frustrated store manager
insisted that this was no way to run a business and quit on the spot. Many
stores experienced conflict rather than cooperation among the meat, produce,
and store managers because each was very protective of his or her separate
responsibilities. Doris Abraham asked a consultant for advice. The consultant
recommended a reorganization within each store so that the meat, grocery, and
produce departments would all report to the store manager. The store manager
thus would have complete control over store activities andwould be
responsible for coordinating across the meat, produce, and grocery departments.
The meat department manager in each store would report to the store manager and
would also have a dashed-line relationship (communication, coordination) with
the district meat specialist. Likewise, each store produce department manager
would have a dashedline relationship with the district produce specialist. The
store manager would report directly to the district store supervisor. The
district meat and produce specialists would visit individual stores
periodically to provide advice and help the store department heads to ensure
top quality in the meat, produce, and grocery areas. The consultant was
enthusiastic about the proposed structure. Store managers would have more
freedom and responsibility. By assigning responsibility for all store
departments to the store manager, the new structure would encourage
coordination within stores and give managers the ability to adapt to local
tastes and customer needs. The dashed-line relationships would ensure excellent
meat, grocery, and produce departments across all stores.