Neill McNeill's Blog

I admire people who take leaps of faith. I'm sure you know one or two. They're the ones who dive into new things not knowing the outcome. But somehow they know---whatever happens--- they'll be okay.

Sometimes they're people who---at the tops of their careers---drop just about every tangible thing that provides financial and emotional security to follow dreams or visions. Every time you walk into The Fresh Market, one of these "leaps of faith" surrounds you. Let me explain.

In 1980 Ray Berry was about to turn 40 years old and at the top of his game. He lived in Dallas, Texas and was vice president of The Southland Corporation. He oversaw more than 3,500 7-Eleven convenience stores. He also had a wife and two young children (a daughter about to enter the 7th grade, a son about to enter the 9th grade).

But Berry wasn't satisfied. Publicly he doesn't get specific. "I left Southland because they wouldn't allow me to do the things the way I wished to do them," he told me during one of my recent "Newsmaker" interviews. "And as I interviewed for jobs and was offered jobs I realized everyone felt the same way."

He considered buying convenience stores, his specialty. It didn't take long for that to become unattractive. At the time, many full-service gas stations were turning into convenience stores. The field was getting crowded. Interestingly enough, The Southland Corporation went bankrupt in the late 1980s and sold off many stores. (Try to find a 7-Eleven store in the Piedmont-Triad today!)

So Berry decided to showcase his "way of doing things." You see, he and his wife Beverly had this desire to open their own grocery store--- a store that replicated a California open-air market: fresh quality (non-packaged) meat and produce, laid-back atmosphere, enthusiastic employees willing to help customers.

Berry knew he wanted to open this store in the southeast because---among other things---this is where many of the large supermarket chains were moving their existing stores into larger buildings. He knew it would probably be easy to retrofit one of these vacated stores. So he put the family belongings into storage, loaded up the family into his two cars, and started riding up the east coast searching for property.

"My wife and I are religious," he told me. "We prayed about a lot of things, and we felt very strongly that this was the right thing for us to do."

By the time the family pulled off Interstate 85 for a stopover in Greensboro, Berry felt it was time to drop off one of the cars. During this stopover a stranger walked up, asked what he was doing and said, "you don't need to look any further. Greensboro is the place you need to be."

The rest is history. Berry took the advice. In March of 1982 he and Beverly opened the first Fresh Market in an old retrofitted Bi-Rite store on Lawndale Drive. That store is still there. It's also among 68 Fresh Markets in 18 states. There are plans to open 10-12 new stores this year. The company also has plans to replace its two stores in Greensboro with nearby, larger ones.

The Fresh Market is the fastest-growing specialty grocery chain in the country. Everything in Berry's stores---including the floral section---is designed, both directly and indirectly, to compliment your dinner table. There are no health and beauty items and no cleaning supplies.

Berry likes to call it "a celebration of food." I call it "a true leap of faith."

Happy 25th Anniversary, Fresh Market! Thanks for making my family's dinner table more enjoyable. But more importantly, thanks for showing us that risks, faith, determination, and hard work can take us a long way.