Jack Brown makes Stater Brothers stand out

If 50 years in the grocery business has taught the local grocery icon anything, it’s that it ain’t any different than it was.

You’ve still gotta know the territory.

“I know Southern California,” Brown said from his new corner office at the Stater Bros. Markets corporate headquarters

at San Bernardino International Airport.

“In 1986, we fought a takeover battle by a New York investment company. A reporter came out to interview me and I told him the biggest mistake they had made:

“You never hunt a grizzly bear in its own woods.”

Jack Brown knows his territory.

That’s why he took a company that was doing $475 million in sales when he joined it 27 years ago and turned it into one that last year did $3.5 billion in sales.

Sixty-nine stores then, 163 now.

Only 3,300 employees then, 17,800 now.

In the process, Stater Bros. has become one of those regional anomalies.

I am glad Jack Brown built his corporate headquarters locally. I am also glad he is doing so well. I hope he continues to grow and compete with the corporate giants and offers pay that can help support a family. I am sure he can afford to lose a little to make sure the workers that have built his fortune can pay for things in our inflated economy.