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I’ve been in the field of Human Resources about 17 years. I’ve worked at very large pharmaceuticals,
I’ve worked at other major corporations, and then a few smaller companies.
Hi, my name is Jennifer Daddio and I’m the Human Resources Manager. There is like, diversity in HR
and not diversity in a sense of the employee relations part of it, but diversity where it’s always good to
try something new and I thought what a great experience.
In 2009, the developer was told that he needed to have a grocery store in here and he tried Whole
Foods, he tried Trader Joe’s, he tried conventional grocery stores, went to probably 20 or 30 different
companies to see if they were interested in having a grocery store in here, and he couldn’t get anybody
to kind of take. Hi, I’m Amy Christensen and I’m the Marketing and Member Services Manager.
Elm City Market’s a Food Co-op in downtown new Haven Connecticut. We have currently about 700
member owners and member owners are people who buy into the business and become owners of it.
The cool thing about this store is it started a little bit differently than a normal co-op. Usually they start
by a few people saying we want some fresh produce, let’s all get together and buy a bunch and divide
it out between us. This one started like, we need a grocery store, let’s make it happen, make it a
cooperative, so what’s the next thing?
A lot of people that work here are actually owners, member owners of this market, and it’s important
that not just the member owners are part of a family and part of a community, but even kind of a
microcosm, a smaller part of that are the employees.
It’s been challenging because I had never worked for a natural co-op. They are very open and free and
less about the minutia (detalles) and all about keeping it simple. A small portion of the HR functions,
policies, procedures had been place when I came in. You had to work with what they had done before.
Make them understand about you’re in Connecticut, which is one of the toughest (difíciles) places to
be an employer and Connecticut is very much for the employer and the employee. So, helping
management understand how those bridges come together has been a challenge.
You do need to cover yourself to make sure that you’re following the State of Connecticut’s
Department of Labor laws and the Fair Labor Standards Acts that have been implemented in the past
several years to make sure that you’re in compliance. There’s also the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration along with the Department of Public Health because we are a food organization. So,
it’s like combining the essence of opening store with the realization of you have to get these things
done with the knowledge of if it’s not done correctly, you could severely be fines and or closed down.
We are taking on a big challenge by hiring minors which a lot of grocery stores in the area do and we
are also a company that is going to sell liquor so that in itself is another training. So, training is very
important and very vast an endeavor that must be undertaken, but absolutely a necessity if the store
wants to grow and prosper and not be inundated with potential fines.
I’ve been employed at Elm City Markets two months, well, two months tomorrow, the 15th will be two
months. My name is Tracey Hubbard and I’m the Front End Manager. We have full time cashiers hired
in that would be eligible after 90 days for medical benefits, dental, vision. There’s a wonderful
employee discount. We have reimbursement for transportation because we are a green company. They
absorb about 75 percent of commuting cost, and discounted parking, are just some of the benefits that
they offer.
