Lowe's Market manager spreads good vibes
ALAMOGORDO – After 37 years of working in the grocery store business, Lowe's Signature Market Store Manager Steve Lenzo still gets excited about going to work and talking about it.
After taking a 6-month sabbatical for personal reasons, Lenzo returned to the store, 675 E. 10th St., and business that he loves Thursday.
He said he enjoys working at the store because of the experience, helping the store’s employees develop their careers and working with the customers.
“It’s in my blood,” Lenzo said. “Being in management, I want to help the company, help the store, and the employees and our customers. I like seeing our customers’ comeback because they’re happy with what we’re doing at the store. We have a lot of great and fun customers.”
He said he believes in a relaxed work environment.
“We try to have fun but at times you have to be serious,” Lenzo said. “I try to have a relaxed atmosphere and hopefully everyone can enjoy it. I learned in supervision if you don’t treat your employees good, it’s going to reflex into the public and the customer. We want to make it a place that the customer wants to comeback. If customers come in and they feel a bad vibe and the employees aren’t happy, they may not come back.”
Lenzo graduated from Alamogordo High School in 1980 then moved to Ruidoso. He started working at a Safeway grocery store in Ruidoso then worked for Furr’s after Safeway sold the store to them in 1987. Along the way, he worked for a Thriftway store then moved back to Alamogordo.
“I ended up going to IGA in Alamogordo on 10th Street in 1996,” Lenzo said. “I was actually the bakery manager there. They had a store on Florida Avenue where the call center was located. They asked me to run the store over there.”
After the IGA Florida store closed, he started working in the bakery at the IGA store, 675 E. 10th St., then Lowes bought the store in 2002. Lenzo worked his way from the bakery department to grocery then assistant manager to store manager.
“The store manager who used to be here was Tim Cotton,” Lenzo said. “Cotton is now the COO of Lowe's Pay and Save Inc. which officially owns Lowe's Signature Market. This store in Alamogordo is the only Lowe's Signature Market in the company. This is the one and only Lowe's Signature Market anywhere else in their chain of stores.”
He said he wants people know that the Lowe's Signature Market is unique.
“We have a food court, Café 675 and dining room with bar,” Lenzo said. “That food court is making as much gourmet fresh items as they can. We have a salad and soup bar. We offer freshly made pizzas and a burrito bar. We have a lot of scratch baking, artisan breads and making fudge in our bakery that a typical grocery store would offer their customers. Our tortilla factory is a nice feature to the store.”
Lowe's Signature Market also features Plateau coffee and seating area within the store.
The store also has a flower and garden shop with a gas station and car wash west of their parking lot area.
“Mostly it’s the decor package that the company put inside the store,” Lenzo said. “It’s not your typical grocery store. We have our live entertainment on Saturday nights. We have beer events with our tap takeovers in the bar. We’re working on more specials for the deli. It’s just not your typical grocery store.”