Tehachapi News

Large business of 2010: Save Mart shares with community

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Tehachapi Save Mart Supermarket, the retail establishment chosen as Tehachapi's Large Business 2010, has been part of the community since 1989.

“We're known as the home town store,” said Store Manager Tim King. “We try to take personal service with our customers.”

Tim Kielpinski, owner of Old Towne Nursery, and Chris George, managing editor of Tehachapi News, nominated Save Mart for the honor, which is awarded by the Greater Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce and the Tehachapi News.

“At different events around town, it seems like they are always involved,” Kielpinski said. “”Tim, the manager there, has got such a great giving spirit. They went above and beyond for the Seniors [Christmas] luncheon.”

There are people who donate, Kielpinski said, and those who do more than that.

Save Mart donated and baked the turkeys for the Dec. 10 Senior luncheon at St. Malachy's Hall, as they have done for a number of years. Bakery Manager Beth Mayer came in at 3 a.m. to get the 20 birds in the oven.

“The people at Save Mart have given generously for the past year, including sponsorship of the Rotary Senior luncheon,” George said. “That's the kind of community participation we're looking for when we make this award.”

The store's participation extends beyond turkeys at Christmas.

Pumpkins and discounts

For years, Save Mart has provided hundreds of pumpkins to the three elementary schools at Halloween.

They offer S.H.A.R.E.S. cards (an acronym for “Supporting Humanities Arts Recreation Education Sports in our community” through which the store sends three percent of an individual's purchases quarterly to a local club or organization.

On Wednesdays, Seniors age 55 and up receive a five percent discount.

“We're one of a handful of stores that do that,” King said.

From Nov. 4 to Jan. 5, the store is carrying out a Holiday Food Drive in which customers can purchase a $10 or $20 bag of groceries and put it in a big blue barrel. The Salvation Army comes by once a day to pick up the donated groceries.

Save Mart's 68 to 70 employees also support the community parades and the Relay for Life.

While support from Save Mart often takes the form of gift cards and products, a big Tehachapi Warriors High School Warriors banner proclaims the pride invested in the local athletic teams. Meat Manager Larry McDonald is active in the Tehachapi High School booster club.

‘System for everything’

The store's community engagement includes environmental awareness.

The Save Mart Supermarkets in California and Nevada send their unusable produce to the Save Mart reclamation center at Lathrop to be made into organic compost. The garden compost is sold in cubic foot bags in front of the store (“Contains no biosolids or steer manure”).

“We take it back [to the reclamation center] in banana boxes. We have a system for everything,” King said.

The store also has bargain racks of discounted products.

Hanford native King has been with Save Mart since 1982 and in the grocery business since he was a teenager.

“I started as a service clerk - a bagger - at another company in Hanford when I was in junior high and high school,” King said. “I worked my way up to management.”

The first store he managed for Save Mart was in Lemoore, after which he managed stores in Coalinga, Visalia and Lindsay before coming to Tehachapi.

King and his wife Michele live in Bakersfield. She has worked for Pepsi-Cola for 30 years. They have five adult children and six grandchildren.

Modesto-based Save Mart Supermarkets is privately owned and has 21,000 employees. The company operates 245 stores in Northern California and Northern Nevada.

Other grocery stores under the Save Mart corporate umbrella are Lucky, S-Mart Foods and FoodMaxx.

The Chamber and the News will give the large and small businesses of the year and the Citizen of the Year awards at a Jan. 23 dinner.