EZ PRICE MART

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EZ PRICE MART

• Your Marshallese COSTCO Store

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Yard Sale to New BuildingYear 1991
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Welcome
to
EZ PRICE MART
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REASONS FOR SUCCESS
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Financial

• No Debt reinvested profits in order to expand
• no loans
• No accounts receivable or bad debt everything
  is current and minimal less than 1 of gross
  revenue
• Credit is very tightly controlled both for
  employees and customers

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Personnel

• Approximately 65 staff
  only five are
  non-Marshallese
• Only hire expats who are able and willing to
  work with and train Marshallese
• Continuous training for staff who show potential
• Promote from within
• Encourage further education by allowing
  flexibility in scheduling for attendance at
  CMI ( College of Marshall
  Islands ), etc.

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Understanding and Appreciation of Marshallese
Culture
We are in Majuro not the USA and we have things
to learn not just to teach
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Cross Training
Actively cross train staff in all key
positions/areas so that absenteeism can be
covered by other staff members
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Shift Work
Two shifts daily with backup staff scheduled in
key areas also allows for absenteeism to be
covered.
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Loans / Debts
Strict limits for advances and charges to company
account
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Savings Accounts
We actively encourage them and keep forms in the
office and help staff to complete them. Most
staff now have a savings account and have payroll
allotted to it regularly.
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Health

• Actively participate in visits
  to doctors and the hospital
• Encourage healthy eating and exercise
• Continued employment dependent on AA
  enrollment/counseling for alcohol abuse
  (Three employees successfully recovering)

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Communication

• Promote teamwork
• Cross training provides understanding of how
  other areas of the business operate
• Open door policy between management and staff
• Policies such as Good Morning encourage
  communication and family atmosphere
• Work hard and have fun while you are

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Community Involvement

• Provide leadership example
• Have been described as the most progressive
  company on island
• Support/work with schools, CMI, NGOs with
  particular focus on our immediate community of
  Uliga
• Actively participate in Chamber of Commerce, NTC
  Steering Committee, NVTI, etc.

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Interaction with Government

• We allow our Marshallese staff
  to deal with government. You cannot
  hurry or push things in the RMI easily.
• Do not accept NO when you are told NO.
• Marshallese are somewhat old fashioned and
  formal in some ways
• Always follow up with a kommol tata

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Thank You Very Much!
Any questions?
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• An Example of a Government / Private Sector
  Problem.
• New Customs Regulations requiring all containers
  to be unloaded at the Stevedores Yard.
• As to how it will this affect my company We
  see this as slowing down our receiving by as much
  as 400. A 40ft hi cube container being
  inspected at our loading dock would normally take
  about a day using the standard practice of fork
  lifts and pallet racks. It would also be out of
  the weather. It will now take about three to
  four days. Our warehouse is pretty much closed
  during this process, as all the warehouse staff
  are at the port. With the amount of containers
  we have coming in, we figure our warehouse will
  now be closed 50 of the time.

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• I am not sure how we will be able to get product
  from warehouse to store from now on unless we do
  a night shift or something else.
• We see the added cost of these new regulations
  for the company to be in the tens of thousands
  considering the staff time and lose of sales from
  product not being on the shelves because it is
  either not in the warehouse or is not coming out
  of the warehouse to the store. The added cost
  will go right to the register and the customer
  will end up paying for this at the end. Not a
  good picture.

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• The main thing to consider is if the new customs
  regulations will work? Customs is trying to get
  a handle on the smuggling problem here in the
  Marshalls. It is a very difficult problem
  because there is so much money involved. One
  container of cigarettes has about 30,000 worth
  of tax. That means you could pay a customs
  agent 10,000 or 20,000 and still come out
  ahead. When you see a pack of cigarettes at a
  very low price in a store, then you can assume
  that it was smuggled in. If you see a customs
  agent spending lots of money every night at a
  local bar and driving a new car, you can assume
  that he is taking some kind of bribe. So how do
  we fix this? In the private sector we would
  talk to everyone we could and develop the best
  plan possible.

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• In our government there is little planning and no
  consultation with private sector. The new
  regulations were implemented on a Thursday and
  the Official Memo came out the next Monday.
  From Thursday to Monday I met with the head of
  customs, the Secretary of Finance, the Chief
  Secretary, a very vocal Majuro Senator and a
  brief meeting with the Minister. All these high
  government officials assured me that they had the
  best interest of the private sector in mind but
  the regulations were going to stand. The
  Stevedores Dock is now jamming up with containers
  and the ships continue to arrive bringing more
  containers. The end result could be the
  destruction of EZ Price as we know it. We would
  have no choice but to sell the company and move
  on. As my office manager Delta would say,
  They do not understand the hurt!

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Thank You Very Much!
Any questions?