Let's meet Mike Simonsik, who is CEO of the ninety ninth Sense Only stores,
and I can only imagine he's pretty pleased with how his Michigan Wolverines are
doing this season. Mike Simonsek, how you doing today? I'm doing great
and it's great to be a Wolverine. Now I have to ask you,
are you from Michigan because I know you went undergraduate and graduate you know,
go blue. So how does University of Michigan figure into your life story?
I grew up in the Detroit so I was a Michigander and lifelong Michigan fan
and proud to be an alum. And I like to joke though I have
two degrees and no football tickets, So I got to work on that.
Anyone who is from Detroit or knows someone from Detroit knows. The operative question
is always what high school did you go to? My mother went to cast
High School, cast Tech wonderful, wonderful. You know. I went to
a school called Detroit Catholic Central, Yes, but near cass both West side
schools and so no cast Well and other schools in my family was from the
West side of Detroit. I remember many summers in Detroit. I think that's
going to lead us into our conversation watching how that city changed, watching how
that state changed, watching how commerce in the Big Three change. What did
growing up in Detroit slash Michigan teach you about business? You know, I
think a few things. I think one it's resiliency. But it also helped
lead me to the ninety nine store. You know what, I grew up
in Detroit. I grew up around people who worked for a living. I
had grandparents that I would say, to be honest, you know, we're
too hard working people. They didn't have a lot of extra dollars, if
you will, to throw around. Quite frankly, I'm part of a first
generation that went to college, so my family was working class folks. I
know what it's like to make a budget stretch, and I know what it's
like for your grandparents or your mom or your dad do want to make a
holiday special, to want to make your life special, and they need to
do it on a very reasonable budget. And that so drove me to the
ninety nine That's what's been a connection for me. Here at the ninety nine
store, we focus on creating opportunities for people of all backgrounds all incomes to
really be able to enjoy a holiday, to be able to put healthy food
on their plates, to be able to get wild kind of fund products at
an enormously affordable, extreme value, great prices. That's what we're here for,
and we're here for the families. California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada.
We're here to help our families be able to enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas,
but also to make that dollar stretch every day every week. I know,
as someone who grew up in California, I always run into people who have
those first hand, anecdotal personal references stories for ninety nine cents only stores.
And I think depending on where you grow up, you may encounter ninety nine
cent only stores at different times. Do you remember the first time that you
walked into one of the ninety nine cent only stores? Yeah? I think
the thing is it blew me away. I was shocked, first of all,
an amazing amount of fresh product, fresh produce, full service grocery store,
and then on top of that all kinds of general merchandise, holiday or
seasonal products, all kinds of party products. I mean, I was amazed
at how much you still can get for ninety nine cents, and then how
many other great deals are still available? So what blew me away is how
much the ninety nine can offer people from a fresh strawberries to ornaments for their
Christmas tree, all at ninety nine cents or less many days, and I
will say this, we have a lot of great products at multiple price points,
but there's great value in what we do. You touch upon something I
think is very important to high so I want to go back and get it
ninety nine cents only stores from where I sit has a very specific challenge given
the very name of the business. You talked about how there are a lot
of great deals and great products which are available for ninety nine cents. But
let's be honest, there are economic forces like inflation, there are industry and
competition forces that you contend with. How do you go about evolving this business
given that changing landscape which you can't control. Yeah, first, we're going
to continue to offer literally hundreds and hundreds of products at ninety nine cents or
less. So we continue to bring a tremendous amount and tremendous number products at
the ninety nine cent price point. However, the ninety nine store is really
going to stand and does stand for normous value on things that are essential to
your life, whether that's fresh produce, grocery items, whether it's scotch tape
or duct tape, whether it's balloons for a party or decorations for a party,
you will deliver enormous value. Sometimes that have value'll be at a dollar
ninety nine, sometimes have values at two ninety nine. Eighty percent of our
items are at four ninety nine or less, and we deliver extreme value or
great value on items that people truly need and want and use every day.
Something that you said which really speaks to me, the ninety nine sense only
stores. They offer the full grocery experience. And when you're talking about sometimes
economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, there is a dearth of grocery stores. There's a dearth
of meaningful food products. How does that figure into your overall strategy as far
as the location and placement in cities. Yeah, we want to go and
be in parts of the cities where people need us, where they're looking and
need to stretch their dollars, where there's often food deserts and non opportunity,
and we bring to the communities we serve twenty five percent of our business.
Think about this where two billion dollar business, five hundred million dollar business and
fresh product everything from strawberries and blueberries to potatoes and onions and bagged avocados for
ninety nine cents. We all full service deli. My breakfasts are all from
the ninety nine store. I use yogurt, I use fresh fruits. We
often have granola grains, name brands, all of it. It allows people
to have an amazing opportunity to eat healthy, wholesome at enormous value, and
our pricing is outstanding and you can then fill it in with more grocery items
and really find those essential items to make your life better. I know you
have not been at the Helm for a long amount of time, and sometimes
you may not know what the future may hold. But if you were to
have your way and there aren't economic forces which may fight against you, what
type of growth or changes do you see in the next five ten years.
We're going to be the leader in America at value and val We will differentiate
ourselves and that no one will bring more value across the spectrum of fresh and
grocery products and amazing curiated seasonal offerings like our Halloween product was amazing day of
the debt. When you go on our store today for Christmas, there are
literally thousands of items at ninety nine cents or a dollar ninety nine or less
to decorate a Christmas tree, decorate your house, provide gifts. So we
will be the leader in bringing value across fresh product as well as general merchandise
and seasons and party. We will be your destination. What people will think
of the ninety nine, They'll say, I go there every week for my
fresh product and my grocery, and then when the big seasons come along or
big occasions, whether it's a graduation party, whether it's Halloween, whether it's
Christmas, I go to the ninety nine. It's birthday parties. You go
to the ninety nine because it's the perfect place to stock up, be able
to deliver an amazing party for your friends or family at an enormous value.
One of the things I mentioned were the competition forces things that may go on
in your industry where there are other businesses within your space. We're fighting for
seemingly the same customers. But there's something else. You listed off the states
in which you could find the ninety nine cent only stores, including California.
There's also a labor discussion where we have minimum wages which are rising in various
states, and that presents a different obstacle or challenge depending on which state you
may be. You know, California may be fifteen to eighteen dollars an hour,
but if you go to Alabama, it may be seven or eight dollars
an hour. Does that figure into how you want to grow and branch out
this business? You know, we're a California based company. We love doing
business in California, and you know what, we want our associates to do
well too. So we're going to be and we want to expand in California,
and we will most likely expand in other states, but we love being
in California and we want that's best for our associates. We want what it's
best for our customers. So we embrace being in California. We embrace the
wages and pay scales of California because we want our associates to do well.
Our associates are also our customers and we want them to do well. So
for us, it's all about focusing on our associates, our customers and creating
that destination where people can get essential products and great value on stuff they buy.
Every day, we'll get you out of bed in the morning. Customers
and the people I work with and our associates. For me, it's personal.
I really feel like if you go back and look at my background,
you'll find out somewhat about thirty years ago, I was working for a nonprofit
organization to try called Focus Hope. It was a group that focused on how
we bring people of different races together, how we tackle poverty, how we
make a different in people's lives, and that has been a motivation of my
entire career. Yes, we want to do well in business, but we
really want to do well for people. And when we come to the ninety
nine, we're helping the customers who need and want to help the most.
And we have good, hard working associates. It's amazing to go in our
stores and meet people who have been working in our stores ten twenty years,
and we have a great team here in our corporate office. They care and
again they care about our customers. They care about each other. So it
gets me out of the bed is simply this, let's take care of our
customers. They need us. They want to be able to make their family
events special, they want to be able to eat healthy, they want to
be able to stretch that dollar. And we have associates who care about them,
and we have associates here in corporated in stores, and if we all
care about each other, we can make this better. Before we started this
conversation in Ernest, you remarked that previously you had gone to a football game,
and I assumed it had to do with University of Michigan Wolverines. And
I think the most successful people have that balance where they may work very hard,
but there's also a non work aspect to their life outside of your alma
mater or maybe going to football games. What do you compliment your life with
family. I spent this weekend with my son, my wife, my two
sons, mom, dad, brother. Family is everything. Fortunately, when
I chose to move to California, my brother in law and his family were
here. I moved two blocks for them, so I get to see my
niece who's a senior in high school, got to really get closer to my
nephew who's a senior at San Diego State. Everything's about family and of course
friends, so those are the things I enjoy the most is time with family.
Do you miss those Detroit winters because I know what they're like. I
mean, they are no joke. And as I get older, I have
no desire to visit Detroit in the winter anymore. How about you? You
know, I'll tell you. When Michigan was playing Michigan State a couple of
weeks ago as a night game, I was sitting outside here with the sun
setting at four thirty and watching everybody bundled up and East Lansing, and I
thought to myself, I think I'm in a good spot. I'm really enjoying
all elements of California. What is your metric? What is your yardstick for
being on pace to either ensure that ninety nine cent only stores continues to be
or becomes what you want it to be. What is your metric or yardstick
serve more customers? I know we're a good business when we keep growing the
number of customers that shop us. So it's all about being there, being
that essential retailer for customers, and we want to grow in the number of
customers who shop the ninety nine How often do you find yourself going into individual
locations in different states, because I know uniformity of a product and presentation is
very important for most businesses, especially businesses which are in multiple states. How
often are you in stores? One, I'm in stores every week, often
a couple times a week. The other thing we've done, too, is
we've created a virtual review process, so literally between physically being in stores every
week, I'm also virtually visiting stores almost daily. But there's a high frequency
of visits, so in stores every week in person and virtually. And the
nice thing what we've done is we do multiple elements now where we touch all
three hundred and seventy seven stores with simultaneous virtual reviews to make sure we got
our products set right, our floor set right, every store checks in.
And now we're also you know, leveraging technology. We have group chats,
all store group chats going all weekend, people sharing their highlights. We have
an internal phrase we use like let's make some noise in our store in all
three hundred and seventy seven stores are engaged. I wonder there's probably an idea
of what the job encompasses. Before you get in and get your elbows greasy
and dirty, and you get your knees dirty, and then there's the reality.
What was the biggest either surprise, pleasant or otherwise from when you accepted
the position to when you got moving. I think the biggest, if you
will surprise or the biggest honestly change from when I started today is the customer
became more personal for me. One of the things we did as leaders is
we all went and worked in stores. I went and it was a cashier
for a day in our stores, and I got to see our customers interact
with them, and at a much deeper level. I actually got to spend
a lot of time on our associates, and it was amazing to me,
you know, the number of our cashiers who actually knew our customers. I
just it became more personal that who our customer is in the important role that
ninety nine can play in making our customers' lives better. That really is the
biggest takeaway. Let me leave you with this question. I know that there
is someone who is listening right now who either has the same passion as you
do, maybe at a different class or station in life than you, but
wants to be where you all, wants to change the world in a retail
sense, or wants to be successful maybe in some other industry. What type
of advice would you give for someone who may be just coming out of college
and can't necessarily see how to get where you are, and you want to
help him or her get there. Yeah, work hard, care, want
to be good, want to make an impact. You need to work hard.
Life is not easy. You've got to care. But what it care
means it won't always go your way. It won't always you won't always get
there on the first try. But you care to be good to make an
impact. So tell any young person or any person at any point in your
career having willingness to work, really care about what you're doing, and keep
grinding away until you get there. It can happen, and it will happen.
Mike Simonsek, CEO of the ninety nine Sense only stores, He is
definitely one of the CEOs. Not only you should know, but you must
know. Mister Smallsik, thank you so much for coming on today. Thank
you and thanks for having the opportunity to talk. I loved it. I
had a lot of fun. And listen, let's have a great, great
Thanksgiving for all our folks out there, and let's help them have a great Thanksgiving.