Dairyland Peach Sections Business Profile 2019 | Página 14

Dairyland Peach Business Profile 2019, Page 14
Coborn’s passionately de
With 90 employees and an adjacent Ace Hardware
store, the Coborn’s in Sauk Centre is a retail hub in
the community. but if you have a couple of kids and you are running
between work and school activities, it’s easier to just
pull up and have someone load it for you.”
Zylka said although some stores already offered the
in-store pickup service, it has now been implemented in
all the stores.
To Zylka, working at Coborn’s is more than just a
job. It’s a family business.
“My whole family works for Coborn’s. It’s something
we’ve always done. I grew up in the store,” he said.
Zylka said after he studied accounting at Central
Lakes College in Brainerd, he realized he didn’t want
to pursue anything but a career at Coborn’s.
“The company treated everyone right, so I just fol-
lowed in my family’s footsteps,” he said.
Zylka has been with Coborn’s for 21 years. The best
part of the job is the daily interaction with people in
the community. To him, each encounter is an opportu-
nity to make a difference.
“You can tell the joy it gives an 80-year-old just by
stopping to talk with her for five minutes. You can
make such a difference in someone’s life by doing that,”
he said.
Zylka oversees 60 employees at the store in Mel-
rose.
As giving back to the community is at the forefront
of the company, Coborn’s donates more than $2 mil-
lion annually to non-profit agencies, such as the Boys
and Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boy Scouts,
Girl Scouts and the YMCA.
In addition, the Coborn’s stores support their com-
munities by giving to health initiatives, youth, non-
profit organizations and the fight to end hunger. The
stores also donate bakery products and other items to
local food shelves.
Coborn’s also offers several high school scholarships
and higher education programs, supports the annual
United Way campaigns and donates to Coborn Cancer
The Long Prairie Coborn’s has 120 community-
minded employees. It includes a Little Duke’s conve-
nience store where customers can get gas even after
hours by paying at the pump. Coborn’s Melrose store manager, Craig Zylka,
thinks of Coborn’s as a family business, even with
80 employees at the Melrose store. Besides, he said,
“My whole family works for Coborn’s.”
In 1921, when Chester Coborn established Coborn’s,
its first produce market in Sauk Rapids, he had a vision
— to serve people.
As time went by and the employee-owned store pros-
pered, he added dry goods and other store items to the
selection.
Since then, many more expansions have occurred and
continues today, all with the same mindset as Coborn,
to serve people better.
One of the newest additions to the Coborn’s store in
Melrose is in-store pickup.
Guests (customers) order the groceries they want and
pay for them online. Once the order is in, one of the
store employees collects the items on the order and pre-
pares it for pickup.
Craig Zylka, store director at Coborn’s in Melrose,
said that since the store started offering the service a
few months ago, it has become increasingly popular.
“The biggest thing customers have commented on is
that it saves them quite a bit of time and how conve-
nient it is, especially for families or people in a rush,”
he said. “Some people have time to come in and shop,
Center in St. Cloud.
In Long Prairie, besides holding various events to
raise funds for non-profit organizations, Coborn’s has
partnered with CentraCare to help address food inse-
curity in the area.
“We try to get involved in the community as much as
we possibly can. We believe in helping our community
and when you do, you are helped out as well,” said John
Howard, store director at Coborn’s in Long Prairie.
Since community well-being is at the heart of Co-
born’s employees, Coborn’s continues to invest in health
education, encourages health and wellness through nu-
tritious food choices and by staying active.
Howard, who has been with Coborn’s for 12 years,
said at first he didn’t think he would turn working at
Coborn’s into a career. He started out as a bagger, but
now oversees 120 employees at the store in Long Prai-
rie.
One thing that really sets Coborn’s apart from other
grocery retail businesses is that the company strives to
provide its guests with fresh products, especially pro-
duce.
“What really sets us apart is that we have seven-
day-a-week produce delivery. People talk about it all
the time, that they can buy produce and leave it in the
fridge for a few days and it’s still fresh. For most of the
competition, it’s you eat it that day or it goes bad,” said
Jamie Shoutz, store director at Coborn’s in Sauk Cen-
tre.
Shoutz oversees 90 employees at the store in Sauk
Centre and even though he holds two degrees in elec-
tronics from Ridgewater College in Willmar, can’t see
himself doing anything else.
“You work in the store and you get to see so many
people,” he said.
A handy addition to the store in Sauk Centre is Ace
Hardware, which is run by Store Director Dave Sobot-
ka.
One of the many fun aspects of working at Coborn’s