Fiona MacLean
For Fiona MacLean, “stay real” means being genuine and kind in her daily interactions with colleagues and customers. Fiona, whose district covers Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario, says after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash earlier this year she was proud to see Sobeys support the families and community in a “quiet, dignified way.” “Our company provided a substantial donation that went to the helicopter ambulance, as well as food for volunteers and families. It wasn’t done for the show of it all, it was just done because it was the right thing to do. I was very touched by that.” Colleagues say Fiona brings the same care and compassion to the job, as she regularly checks in with her various pharmacy teams to ensure they have what they need, share new ideas or efficiently handles problems as they arise. “We’re all human beings and just trying to be kind to each other and helping each other out,” she says.
Danielle McNelly
Danielle McNelly has a reputation for going above and beyond in her job as a meat cutter, assisting customers with their meal planning or putting in extra time in the store to help set up for special events. “Her pride, integrity and working with passion has influenced many staff in our store,” a colleague says. With over 21 years working at Sobeys, she is proud to have been recognized as a Value Champion, and says she inherited her strong work ethic from her father. “He’s the one who taught me to take pride in what you do.” She puts in the extra time to make things right in order to enhance the customer experience in the store, something she appreciates when shopping. “I make sure everything is displayed properly so customers can easily find it. It makes their shopping a little easier.”
Shannon MacKinnon
Pharmacy manager Shannon MacKinnon has a reputation for going above and beyond, and at least one customer is very appreciative. The customer, who has some challenging health issues, says Shannon and her team have been very helpful in managing her medications and concerns. “Shannon has even called to check up on me to see how I’m feeling,” she said. “She is my advocate and I am confident knowing that she is in my corner and has my best interest and health in mind.” “I don’t do it for accolades,” Shannon says. “Taking the extra time is what sets us apart from other pharmacies. I like being able to learn people’s names and greet them at the counter, and ultimately manage their medications with them.” One of Shannon’s proudest moments was when her Lawtons mentors had a “white coat” ceremony in the dispensary when she was accepted to Dalhousie College of Pharmacy.
James MacGregor
When Jim decided to collect food for families in his community, he wasn’t thinking on a small scale. “I had this vision of bringing the churches and the food banks together to do a citywide food drive.” After two annual food drives, they have collected 45,000 pounds of food, but it’s not just gathering food that is important to Jim. Raising the social conscience of the young people around him is key. “I decided that it would be the children of the community doing (the drive),” says Jim. “They would be the real heroes going out and canvassing door-to-door. This helps build strong community values with them. They get to understand the importance of paying it forward.” Jim’s three children work for Sobeys and he loves to see them and other young employees succeed. “They are a lot smarter than we sometimes give them credit for and when you give them a task, they give it 100 percent.”
Christopher MacDonald
When a bomb threat was posted to social media, specifying a date and time a week later that it would be detonated, OPP and Sobeys Loss Prevention asked Chris to quietly continue store operations. “I didn’t tell anyone,” says Chris. “We didn’t want the employees or customers dealing with all that stress and anguish.” The day before the bomb was supposed to go off, Chris told his wife. “That was the toughest part. Sitting down with my wife and just letting her know, in case something happened.” When Chris got the call that a suspect had been arrested just hours before the specified time “I shut my office door and cried,” he says. “I’ll never forget that.” Providing for his wife and three girls is what motivates Chris. “From when I started off pushing buggies to where I am now, it was always so I could do more for them. It’s what gets me up and makes me go.”
Gus Lynch
One day, during the busy week before Christmas, an elderly customer came into the store. There was a snowstorm on the way and the customer was gathering the ingredients for her holiday baking. She asked for Gus’s help finding a special type of flour but it wasn’t in stock. Later that day, Gus and his co-workers were restocking displays. “We took out a pallet of stock and in the middle was that bale of flour,” says Gus. “I felt really bad because I knew how important her baking was.” Since she was a regular, Gus was able to find her number and call her but the customer didn’t feel comfortable coming back out in the snow. That didn’t stop Gus, who dropped it off on his way home from work. “I just thought it was the right thing to do,” says Gus. “It’s just the way we work.” “Customers are the ones keeping our stores open, the least we can do is look after them.”
Jackie Loates
Jackie Loates is known for thinking outside the box, or in one case, inside the bus. She is lauded for coming up with innovative projects to help spread the word about Sobeys and its pharmacy services, including a unique partnership with the Toronto Transit Commission to ride the bus with seniors to chat about various health-care related programs at the store. “We all took our turn getting on the bus with seniors to discussing different topics and services we provide,” she says. “It was a lot of fun to ride along with the seniors and get a feeling for how they view Sobeys.” Loates, who has been in her current role for two years and with Sobeys for 14 years, is also credited for coming up with the Shop Where You Work program, which promotes employee use of the store pharmacy. The initiative has since been adopted in several provinces.
Doug Little
It was a snowy, -27 C day in January when a man walked into the Calgary Safeway looking shaken and very cold. Doug Little happened to notice him and asked how he was doing. Not so great, the gentleman said, as he’d run his car into a snowbank and it was going to be a seven-hour wait for a tow truck. “I’m just heading for lunch,” Doug said. “Let’s see if we can get that car off the snow.” After punching out, they jumped in his truck and went to dig out the car. The produce manager didn’t think any more of it until the man came back later with a large sign and a thank-you card proclaiming Doug to be “the greatest guy ever.” For his part, Doug says that’s just what he does for people. “It was pretty simple for me, but he obviously appreciated it.”
Lily Maltese
Described as a “force to be reckoned with”, Lily Maltese is a valued employee who gets things done. But, say co- workers, she does it with integrity and passion. As Team Lead for the successful fourth and final Tango Ontario Project, “words cannot describe properly how energized the IT team was,” wrote a colleague. “When we arrived on the ground, whether it was for training, support during UAT, or the go-live, Lily was ready to go.” Lily says she thrives on the fast pace, and the variety of the tasks at hand. “It’s new every day and you’ve got different challenges and it’s the thing I love the most.” She also appreciates the many close relationships that have built up over 32 years. “I know it’s a little cliché to say it’s like family, but when you’ve worked for an organization for so long, it does become family.”
Evan Martinelli
Evan takes his core value, to serve his community, to heart and he has a little fun at the same time. Seven years ago he started a corporate hockey pool, which has given employees within the national pharmacy group an opportunity to interact with each other and raise money for a good cause. They chose Canadian Diabetes Association as their recipient because as pharmacists, he and his colleagues help Canadians affected by the disease. He also has a personal reason to give: his brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a teen. “Proudly serving our communities means expanding your job or your passion outside the four walls of the store in order to make a difference,” Evan says. “I look to Sobeys as a community leader.” Evan is appreciative of the opportunities Sobeys has given him and his family. He jokes that “My Sobeys is where I bring home the bacon, literally and figuratively.”
