Stew Leonard: My Story

Stew Leonard's success in building a unique retail business has made him among the most revered entrepreneurs in the world. Guinness Book of World Records cites Stew Leonard's as the food store in the United States with the greatest sales per unit area. Ripley's Believe It Or Not! identified Stew Leonard's as the world's largest dairy store. Those milestones were achieved because of the passion and loyalty of his customers, 100,000 of whom visit his flagship store each week. Forbes, the New York Times, People, CNN, 20/20, and Tom Peters' PBS series A Passion for Excellence have all praised Stew for his business and creative genius. He received the Presidential Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence from President Ronald Reagan and was named on of the 'Visionaries Who Transformed Food Retailing' by Supermarket News. Fortune ranks Stew Leonard's as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. In this memoir, Stew Leonard tells the story of his relentless search for and unwavering commitment to excellence, explaining how the store's dedication to customer service, its reputation for fresh-from-the-farm products, and its renowned and entertaining retail environment came about. Stew also writes of his own personal setbacks and tragedies, from the struggles of building his business from nothing to the death of his twenty-one-month-old grandson and the disastrous decisions that led to a forty-two month sentence in a federal prison camp. Through it all he shares the hard-won wisdom, strength, and insights he gained from his experiences. The story of Stew Leonard's is more than Stew's story. It is the tale of one man's business that grew into a family corporation with multiple stores managed by long-time employees and three generations of the Leonard family. Stew details how each of his four children found an outlet for their own passions within the family business, and how the family came up with a plan to guarantee that future Leonard generations will continue the Stew Leonard's traditions.