Longtime Schnucks manager Dennis Marchi retires

He had planned to stay just three years.

When a young Dennis Marchi moved to Cape Girardeau in 1985 to manage the new Schnucks store, he had no idea he would be here for the rest of his career.

"... I had no idea where Cape Girardeau was at that time, and I was told ... I would go back to St. Louis," he said.

But the more he worked here, he said, the better it was for his family. He and his wife, Kathy, liked the town, and both their sons would establish homes in the area. Marchi would turn down several promotions over the years so he could stay in his new hometown of Cape Girardeau.

"The community is just super, and our customers are just out of this world," he said.

On Friday, Marchi was honored for his 30 years of service at Schnucks with a retirement party at Drury Lodge.

Marchi began his career as a bagger at Bettendorf in the St. Louis area, three years before Schnucks bought the chain. He went to work for Schnucks in 1970. The Cape Girardeau Schnucks opened in 1976 and at first was managed by a coordinating group.

Marchi took over management of the Cape Girardeau store when Bill Hammett, who had managed the store since 1977, was transferred to St. Louis as manager of warehouse stores.

Marchi has a bachelor's degree from Saint Louis University and earned his master's degree at Webster University.

His coworkers say they are going to miss the presence of their longtime manager.

Co-manager Jon Townsend, who worked as a store clerk when Marchi came to town in 1985, said working daily with Marchi was "outstanding."

"There are types of leaders who command you to do things, and there are types of leaders who ask you to do things and you know they want you to do them," Townsend said, adding the respect Marchi's employees have for him motivates them to do well. "He doesn't give you a command; he simply asks that you do a task or you know what task needs to be done, and you want to complete it in such a manner that it pleases him."

Marchi long has been involved with civic organizations in town as well. At one time or another, he has served on the boards of the United Way, Community Caring Council, the local American Red Cross chapter, Southeast Missouri State University Marketing Department, Saint Francis Medical Center and the Salvation Army, to name a few.

In 1986, he was honored when the Cape Girardeau Schnucks' in-store Special Olympics promotion was judged the best in Missouri. For that, he won a trip to Washington, D.C., to see the opening of the district's Special Olympics.

In 1987, Marchi won the Jaycees' Distinguished Service Award for "significant contributions to the community in a variety of areas" through his work with community organizations.

Schnucks CEO Todd Schnuck, who has known Marchi since the summer of 1978, said Marchi's involvement with these organizations probably helped him become a better manager.

"... It gave him exposure to other leaders in the community and people that were running successful businesses themselves," Schnuck said. He said Marchi's involvement in the community created "a lot of goodwill for the store and for the team."

Townsend said Marchi's greatest strength as a manager is he leads from the front.

"He doesn't push you to do a task. He says, 'Let's go do this. Let's do this together,' or 'This needs to be done,'" and helps his staff take on some of the dirtiest tasks in the store.

"He's such a wonderful person," Townsend said. "He doesn't have a mean spirit in him."

"His customer focus is unparalleled," Schnuck said. "The care and concern that he has for his customers is just fabulous. ... He has taken to his adopted hometown of Cape Girardeau with great gusto for serving the community in a lot of different ways ... ."

Schnuck recalled a bad storm a few years ago left many people in the area without power.

"Denny invited his customers to bring their perishable products to the store, and we held them in our coolers and our freezers and saved [his] customers a lot of money and a lot of hassle because he was just thinking about how he could take care of his customers," Schnuck said, "which is really just indicative of how he went through his whole career."

Townsend's favorite memory of Marchi is from when the company had bought a small chain of stores in Memphis, Tennessee.

"All the new people that were employed down there, they didn't know Dennis or know anything about him, but he treated them with the same respect that he treated his teammates that he's worked with the last 20 years ..." Townsend said. "And that really says something for Dennis. It just wasn't the Cape store; this was truly how he acted with everybody. ... He had that Schnucks persona, that manager persona, that, 'We're a team, we're a family, and this is what we're going to do.' And for me, that really drove it home, that this is a unique person."

Schnuck spoke highly of Marchi's exuberance, excitement and "contagious enthusiasm" and said the company is "absolutely" going to miss him.

"When an individual like Dennis retires, that's not something you look forward to, because the value that he's created in that market and the success that he's had ... ," Schnuck said. "What he's done is he's created a team there in Cape Girardeau that I think will carry on and will live up to his legacy because he set such a great example for so many people over the years that they'll keep doing what Dennis did."

Marchi has "touched many people in the community, he's touched everyone in this store, past and present," Townsend said, either by things he has done professionally or "what he's done personally or for somebody."

"He is worthy of everything that he's earned over the years. He truly is."

Marchi is looking toward retirement with mixed emotions.

"Of all those years I worked there, it's hard to leave ... when you have such good employees, which we do," Marchi said.

He attributes the Cape Girardeau store's success to the quality of products and food Schnucks provides.

"It's a great company, so we have to keep ... giving the best quality service that our customers expect when they come in the store," Marchi said.

But, he said, the friendliness is the biggest part of why the store is so successful.

"If we can help that customer, that's what we look for. We want that customer to be happy."

Marchi said he believes the store's community relationships are important as well. Schnucks works with organizations such as the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence (SADI), Southeast Missouri State University and the Salvation Army on projects such as winter coat drives and Toys for Tots.

While Marchi said he loves some of the seasonal events the store puts on, such as the Valentine's Day party for couples married 50 years or more and the Easter egg hunt for children, his favorite recollection is the opening of the Show Me Center in July 1987.

"They had a great big ... party, and we sponsored an opening" with many vendors, Marchi said. "We gave away food and gifts and toys, and it was a really, really, really neat thing, and our employees really helped work on getting those products there."

Marchi's advice to incoming managers: "Well, smile."

"A customer comes in and you look at them, and you smile and get the handshake," Marchi said, and offer to help them find the product they are looking for. "And our employees are taught the same thing: 'Let me go get that product. Let me get that case of soda or whatever.' That's what it all means. That's what Schnucks is."

kwebster@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3646

Pertinent address:

19 S. Kingshighway St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.