Meet roger gildehaus | foundermprinciple owner and president of gild corp. and gild holdings

We had the good fortune of connecting with roger gildehaus and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi roger, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
i started in retail with the wal mart company in 1973 worked there for over 25 years..was an assistant store manager,got my own store as manager when i was 24,them mr. sam hand picked me to be the manager of the first proto type stores designed by a company,was to be the store of the future. then i was promoted to the home office in bentonville.was a toy buyer,then sr. buyer,then promoted to a divisional merchandise manager,and was then promoted to an officer of the company.during these years mr. sam apparently took a liking to me,he would come by my office from time to time,and he and i would travel out to visit store,i was like a sponge learning the retail business.after 25 years of corporate life,i decided to design and open a package liquor store,my belief was that i could be sucessful by doing the liquor business in the reatail ways i learned at wal-mart and from mr. sam.so.i opened my first store in 1997,was the largest store in this market,we quickly became the highest volume store around here and within 3 years ,according to my vendors was the highest volume store in the state of missouri.being pressured by my vendors to open more stores because our customers were very loyal to macadoodles,i decided to start up a franchise company,instead of me being on the road again,we built a program to teach other people how to open and operate a sucessful store.i had 3 founding prinvciples when i opened the first store and we still have and follow these princioles

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
when starting my own company,and decided to do liquor business in the ways i learned in my wal-mart years.my three founding principles are:provide the customer with the overall best assortments of fine wines,spirits and beer in the market. provide this large assortment of products at very competitive prices
give all customers service beyond their expectations
so,our main attraction is that at macadoodles you will always get macadoodles kind of service,our customers have been very loyal to our brand,they enjoy the shopping experience at macadoodles,as the owner i always make sure all our staff understands that job one is taking care of the customer.having been in the package liquor store business now for over 25 years,we are very proud of having received three national awards:
2006,we were one of seven companies in the u.s. to receive the market watch leaders award.
2012,we received the “merchandiser of the year award from market watch
2016,we received the big one,we were the “retailer of the year” from market watch

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
take him to the wal-mart visitors center in downtown bentonville take him to the world famous walton art center
take him to a arkansas razorback game,football,baseball or basker ball game

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
mr sam walton mr. al johnson,,these were my main mentors during my years at wal-mart

Website: macadoodles.com website

Linkedin: roger gildehaus

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