224 | Business World Magazine |
Aug/Sep 2013
more engaged and more productive at work.
“We typically sell to the human resources
department because they see this as an im-
portant employee benefit,” says McCall.
“Employees win because they not only have
more food and drink items to choose from,
but healthier options which can be accessed
from work as opposed to a store or diner
somewhere down the road. Employers win
because their staff is happy, healthier and
more engaged. And we win because we see
increases in sales. Few things in business re-
sult in a win-win-win, but that’s what we’ve
developed with the micro markets concept.”
Five Star Chief Executive Officer Alan
Recher explains, “From the inception, we
had this vision of what we wanted the mar-
kets to look like and feel like. We wanted to
build a destination in the workplace, and
while the convenience of vending is nice to
have, we’ve found the transactions through
a micro market are three times faster than
vending allows.” In pioneering the concept,
Recher says many analysts were skeptical
that it would work, but Five Star has proven
them wrong. Recher says companies which
have converted to the micro market system
have never asked to go back to conventional
vending platforms. As to whether anyone
abuses the honor system accommodated by
the market, Recher reports that shrinkage
totals range from zero to less than two per-
cent.
