Traveling Man: Miller's Journey Returns him to TD in Great Grocery Run

Cody Miller, 33, and now back in The Dalles said some of the fun parts of operating Grocery Outlet here is getting to design slogans and logos. He had his hand in this piece that hangs above him. Miller, who graduated from TDHS in 2005, has a pretty good feel for the area.

Cody Miller with ever the quick pace is always looking for holes in the shelves, an art he has learned in his 15-year career thus far. He is the independent operator at Grocery Outlet in The Dalles and has a keen eye for holes in the inventory. Here he is getting the ice cream set.

By Tom Peterson

Cody Miller learned a valuable lesson his sophomore year of high school through a simple auction. 

Miller, now 33, is the new independent operator of Grocery Outlet on West Sixth Street. He took over in April from Amie and Brian Baldy. 

But back in 2003, he was a student at The Dalles High School, and his teacher Mary Reynolds started a weekly auction that rewarded good behavior.

It was a simple concept. 

Students received Mary Bucks, similar to Monopoly money, on Mondays. And on Fridays, students used the bucks to buy auction items - candy, pop, etc.

The catch?

If you got in trouble for talking too much or disrupting class, Ms. Reynolds would take cash away from you. 

At the end of the week, Miller remembers buying everything he could.

He went for broke. 

Then the next week, he took multiple packs of products, like gum or cans of pop and and broke them down to single items. He then sold them during the week to his classmates for more than he paid. 

This went on for several weeks and soon he was on a roll. He parlayed all the Mary Bucks.  

“I had them all,” Miller laughed. 

He literally broke the game and became one heck of a merchandiser in the process. 

“It’s kind of a weird, funny story,” Miller said last week. “Looking back, I guess that was a good indicator of my future career.”

For the past 15 years, Miller has been all over Oregon learning the grocery game at both Safeway and Grocery Outlet. He has tested leadership theories, gotten deep into the science of product placement and even had shoplifters throw a few punches at him.

At this point in his career, all signs pointed him back to The Dalles.

“I’m a small town guy,” he said.

In the Beginning

Miller attended St. Mary’s Academy and graduated from TDHS  in 2005. He started at community college that next fall, but he couldn’t afford it. 

So, he took a job at Safeway in The Dalles as a courtesy clerk, bagging groceries and pulling long lines of carts.

Here is a recent shot of the spruced up Grocery Outlet cheese and dairy section in The Dalles.

“I wanted to know everything I could about it,” he said. “I set a goal of learning the whole store in 10 months.”

It turned into a bit more than that.

Safeway leadership singled him out after 10 months and sent him on the road.

Moving Around 

He spent the next two years doing lifestyle resets, changing colors and themes at Safeways across Oregon.

Every several weeks, Miller would find himself at a different store working with a new crew.

“I was able to try a lot of management styles out,” he said. “I tried nice. I tried mean.”

But what worked best, he said, was authenticity and instilling a sense of competition.

Miller, an avid basketball fan, said he took cues from the Utah Jazz’s Karl Malone and John Stockton. 

“They worked hard. They got better every year. And they put their time in at the gym.”

Back to TD

By 2008, Miller was back at The Dalles Safeway as head clerk, a third-in-command position.

Miller was promoted to Assistant Manager at Safeway in Baker City in 2011.

And before he started, he set a goal of getting the store back into the top 100 club for maintaining inventory - essentially leaving no holes on the shelves where products are missing.

His first audit in Baker City was an 87.

Miller said he had to smile for a minute in order for a computer to generate the caricature of him above. “That’s a long time for the same smile,” he said.

Portland Bound and Road House 

He moved to Safeway at 122nd Avenue and Gleason Street in Portland. That store had different issues related to labor.

“It was crime-ridden,” he said. “He said the store would put an employee at the exit in hopes of stopping shoplifting.”

“What’s a 16-year-old kid going to stop,” Miller said, noting those were his Road House years. 

He was referring to the movie starring Patrick Swayze and this particular speech.

“I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice. If somebody gets in your face and calls you a #$%&$%$%, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won't walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can't walk him, one of the others will help you, and you'll both be nice. I want you to remember that it's a job. It's nothing personal.”

Miller said that speech served him well in his time at the store. He also spent time getting employees back to the business of groceries, not crime, bringing labor costs down.

Two different shoplifters took swings at him twice.

Hood River

Miller, still in his 20s, was moved to Hood River where he set his eyes on capturing the top spot for keeping shelves faced and looking good in a five-state region for the company. Out-of-stock audits soon declared him the winner.

On to Gresham

Miller was made a Store Manager at the Gresham Safeway.

Back to TD

Miller with the Business of the Year award earned in Baker City in 2019.

By the age of 28, Miller was back at The Dalles Safeway. But now he was the Store Manager - after starting there 10 years earlier.

He operated the store from 2016-2018 when he saw an opportunity with Grocery Outlet. 

The company was constructing a new building in Baker City and needed an independent operator. Miller saw it as a chance to get out on his own and put some of his hard-earned experience to work. He trained at Grocery Outlet in Madras and then found himself learning the finer points of product placement, understanding footage and ultimately how to layout the store in Baker.

“I fell in love with those concepts,” he said. 

Miller also had the chore of creating a whole new clientele for Grocery Outlet from the population in the Baker City area. 

He joined the Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce. Grocery Outlet won The Chamber’s business of the year in 2019.

So when the opportunity to take over the Grocery Outlet in The Dalles came along, he jumped at it, he said. 

He purchased a home in The Dalles and moved in last April. 

“I never bought a lot of stuff because I was always moving. I just feel fortunate that all of this fell into place. I have put a lot of focus and energy to get to my goals.”

Miller has now set his eyes upon the store on West Sixth Street.  He is falling back to his skills that focus on cleanliness, store flow, full shelves and bringing a variety of products for customers. 

“I’m pushing that a lot,” he said. 

The store has also been spruced up with logos and fresh graphics, giving each section of the store a warm, welcoming feel.

“I am thankful to be back in my hometown and get to be an essential part of the community,” he said.

Here is another sign of Miller’s handy work and planning. Fresh graphics now line the headers around the store.

Here’s a coupon for you too! Screenshot me, or give me a click to go to a download page.