Testimonials

Joe's "Undercover Boss" incognito experience, surreptitiously glimpsing his business from the bottom up, may inspire other C-Stores operators to try the same thing.

You might be surprised to learn that there's another "Joe" who has been going under cover in New York convenience stores for nearly 20 years.

Joe Callahan is president of C-Chex, The compliance company (www.c-chex.com). He and his team specialize in helping retailers detect weaknesses in their age verification procedures, by sending in "mystery shoppers" to try to purchase tobacco or beer.

They enable you to identify problems and address them - whether though retraining, redeployment, or removal - before the enforcement agencies arrive to perform "live" undercover stings, which can cost you thousands of dollars in fines and/or suspension of your tobacco, lottery, or beer license if under age sales are documented.

Like many C-Stores, it's a family-run business. Their headquarters are inside joe Callahan's home in the Finger Lakes. Yet they manage to cover New York, New England and much of the east coast with scores of mystery shoppers and supervisors in the field.

Besides performing compliance checks, these mystery shoppers can measure the level of staff execution of store policies and procedures, such as greeting and thanking every customer or telling customers about a new product or discount offer.

So if you get the urge to become an "Undercover Boss," one alternative is to use a New York-based service where you concentrate on being the boss while Joe Callahan's people carry out your undercover mission