The following update comes to us from member Dan Quinn:
In 1967 I started at Sav-On Drug during my junior and senior years in high school as an Ice Cream Dipper and the people I worked with over the next 44 years became my second family, people who I got to share my life’s experiences with. Those are the people and the good times I remember. I never realized just how powerful the sense of belonging had become until I attended the Osco 75th Anniversary Reunion dinner this past August.
For me this was a chance to once again meet so many of the wonderful people that I got to work with during my Customer Service days when I was lucky enough to travel the country talking about my second favorite subject, Customer Service…Annie has always been my #1 favorite subject. So many wonderful people and so many wonderful stories and moments to cherish, it was a night I’ll never forget.
But I was also struck by something else…the Osco family has maintained their ties over the years even though the company is no longer in existence through the efforts of the Osco/Sav-on Alumni Club. They hold get-togethers in Chicago and in Arizona where they meet for dinners and golfing and mainly to just enjoy each other’s ongoing companionship.
I was one of the luckiest in the Sav-On family in that I got to know the Osco family as well. They were so similar, great passionate people who believed in the phrase “Count on People Who Care”just like we did. It was more than a slogan, it was the way we treated our customers and each other and it is what made us truly proud of who we were and the services we provided to our customers for over 60 years.
I grew up working for great people like R.L. Call and Ira D. Brown who believed in a very simple creed: Treat your employees like your family, inspire them to do their very best and then watch as they deliver the best service in the industry.
They were absolutely right, and I know that there are a great many former Sav-on Associates who remember with pride the days when they got a visit from one of our Presidents and they made each of you feel like you “Mattered”. That is because you DID!
Sav-On Drug wasn’t about the buildings, it was about the People. We are going to start a similar process in the West, with the Sav-On family. We are going to begin a regular series of get togethers each year going forward so that we all have an ongoing chance to keep in touch and once again experience the pride that came from being part of a wonderful group that helped all of us to not only raise our families and enjoy what other people called “work”, but to get to know each other and learn that we had something very special indeed at Sav-On Drugs.
I’ll always remember how good it felt when someone asked me who I worked for and I answered: Sav-On Drug. That is because it was the BEST in the West, just like Osco in the Midwest and the East! So my Osco friends, thanks for the great Reunion, thanks for being the caring, sharing, "family" that always made me feel so welcome.
Pretty soon, we'll have some details to share about the first Sav-on Reunion!
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