Seeking a Passionate Leader (San Luis Obispo)

Thank you for considering SLO Food Co-op! We are seeking a passionate leader, with a proven track record in grocery retail management, to take the reins of our Center Store Departments, with a confident steady hand.
Someone approachable, naturally humble and grounded, yet capable of sharing their passion and igniting inspiration within a team to rally toward a common vision.
A leader who exemplifies empathy and optimism, offering understanding, thoughtful opportunity-driven guidance, and acts of kindness to brighten someone's day.
SLO Food Co-op is a modest health food grocery store that’s growing quickly with an aim to revolutionize the shopping experience and lead a movement with a lasting legacy of sustainability.
This is our vision, our goal, and our future.
With nearly 80% growth over the last five years, we're on the path to greatness, poised for countless opportunities.
As the Center Store Manager, you'll shape our vision and immerse yourself in: Running a business as part of our Store Management Team.
Fostering transparency through our Open Book Management program.
Exploring & developing the health food movement.
Building strong ties within our local community.
With great momentum, we're on the hunt for an exceptional manager to take the lead of the largest volume sales departments in the store, and join us on our path to trailblaze our bright future together.
We value transparency, and want to be upfront that as a small business we are limited in what benefits we're able to offer, at this time.
We place a major emphasis on creating the most meaningful, supportive, and engaging environment possible, with the intention to build the culture and team that will help us innovate and grow to a scale that can offer benefits to match our ambition.
Currently, our benefits include: - Employee Discount: 20% off all products in the store for you and your family unit.
- Special Orders: Order full cases from our distributors just 5% above cost (to cover shipping.
) - Paid Time Off: After 90 days, you'll start accruing paid time off for a healthy work-life balance.
- Staff Appreciation: A Genuine Spirit of Gratitude and regular Staff Appreciation; from a free cold drink on a hot day, to frequent Team Lunches where we treat the whole team to a meal from a local restaurant, to Surprise Doughnuts when it feels like it's time for surprise doughnuts! - Reducing Food Waste / Free Food! Whether a dented can of soup, or a tomato that's a little rough around the edges, but beautiful on the inside, there are daily opportunities for our team to pick up some free food.
- Leadership Development: Every manager has a weekly 1 on 1 coaching session with the General Manager to develop their strategies and hone their skills.
With this a variety of tools and resources become available to help managers on their path.
We foster a culture of empowerment, freedom and autonomy, where unique abilities thrive, and ideas can be voiced with safety, able to blossom into innovative practices.
As our Center Store Manager, you will be able to draw on your experience to utilize your whole skillset, and wholeheartedly embrace spacious freedom to dream big, set your own plan, and test your ideas fearlessly, with the peace of mind that your peers, leaders, and team understand that we either win or we learn.
You will be able to embrace the opportunity to shape your role, make a lasting impact on our Co-op and the community we serve, all with the camaraderie of the kindest, funniest, and most cooperative people on the planet, who are here to support you on your path, and celebrate with you in success.
We take immense pride in our team culture.
Our foundation is built on genuine care for each other, a celebration of uniqueness, open and honest communication, and trust.
We lead with empathy, embracing respect, patience, and a commitment to finding insightful solutions to support each other.
Our mascot, the goat, symbolizes who we are—kind, weird, intelligent, funny, steadfast, and, of course, the Greatest Of All Time! We embrace the delightful absurdity of how it sounds, but firmly believe, that a small group of thoughtful, committed grocers can indeed change the world.
To give an idea of what our culture feels like from outside the perspective of the person writing this job posting, we asked two team members to describe in under 5 words our culture.
Mara, a team member for over four years, said we are "Close-knit, collaborative, and complementary.
" Britain, who has been with us for just about five months, said we are "Friendly, flexible, growing, unique, open-book.
" We want to emphasize that we are searching for candidates with different strengths, experiences, and backgrounds, who lead with their passion for health, sustainability, and wellness within our community.
We believe having a diverse set of viewpoints in our organization creates a vibrant, thriving culture and we strongly encourage applicants of minority or marginalized groups to apply.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, all hiring decisions are based on qualification, experience, and availability.
What do you think? Are you feeling the vibe? Maybe a little inspired? If you're picking up what we're putting down, this is resonating with you, and there's a tingling of excitement in your chest right now, we really want to talk to you.
If you feel that you can draw inspiration from our vision, and have the goat superpowers to harness that energy to take it to the next level, then we should join forces and trailblaze a path together! "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
" -Margaret Mead Application Process: We will be collecting applications over a 3-4 week period starting October 27; please apply before November 17, for the best shot to be selected! If selected you should hear from us 3 to 5 days of applying and we'll request an email address to contact you for interview process.
Initial Interview / Group Interview: Whenever possible we like to sit down for a one on one interview with every exceptional candidate, and this may be the route we go.
However, there are times when it's logistically impractical to do a one on one, depending on the number of candidates, and may request that several candidates interview in a group session together.
Information sharing: We will send you the full Position Profile for this role, as well as the Vivid Vision for the Co-op's future, for you to familiarize yourself a bit more with us, and in kind we will request specific feedback from you about how you relate to these two documents.
Vibe Interview: Before making the call, we ask the finalists to come to the store and spend a couple of hours getting to know the team.
This gives the finalists a chance to see how it feels in the environment, ask the team candidly what it's really like working with us, and generally get the vibe.
In kind, this gives the team a chance to know the finalists and feel what it might be like working with them.
After all vibe interviews are complete we move on to the last part.
The Offer: Taking into account any thoughts or feelings that come from either end of the vibe interview, we weigh all the information from the process and make a selection of one finalist to offer the position to.
The finalist has a day to consider the offer, and if accepted the other finalists are notified the same day and, teary eyed, our paths diverge for the time being.
We hope that this process doesn't seem too cumbersome.
We believe that forming this relationship is a pretty big commitment, and this is designed to give both the Co-op and the candidates as much information as is reasonably possible before deciding to spend forty hours a week together!