This page represents an article that The Sacramento Bee published in October of 1972. This article featured Tom Raley and told his story about his shoestring beginnings and how he was able to open his first grocery store in Placerville. I have to wonder how much fraud was going on at Raley's when this Bee article came out in '72?
In the above paragraph (October of 1972), Tom Raley is sitting in Raley's office building located at 1515 20th street in Sacramento. Not less than 10 months later, you couldn't find Raley at this same office building when Charles Nordby was hired. I think in 1973, Raley was courting his second wife Joan, a woman who apparently was a real estate broker.
Read the paragraph below and see how Raley describes his point of difference. The biggest point of difference that existed at his Raley's stores was the ability his suppliers, employee's, and his clientele (shoplifters) were easily able to rip him and his stores off. In truth, Raley's biggest point of difference came less than a year after this article was written when a grocery consultant by the name of Charles Nordby was hired.
A man whom Tom Raley claimed he never knew. In October of 1972, Raley was giving trading stamps to his customers. He says they add to the cost of groceries but housewives like them and so he gave them to them.
Yet, less than a year later, after Charles Nordby was implimenting his profit increasing program, Raley's discontinued them. If the housewives love them, why did Raley stop giving them out?
Read the paragraphs below and see where Tom Raley indicates that he is proud of the organization that he has built up over the years and also stating that the stores almost run by themselves. When Charles Nordby was hired less than ten months after this article was written, Tom Raley's stores looked like they were being run by themselves. Raley's stores were a total mess. Who is Raley trying to deceive in his 1972 article?
In this October, 1972 article, Raley said he would like to expand in a couple years when he has total sales up to 100 million dollors. Expansion is costly he says.
However, less than 10 months later, Raley buys a chain stores in Nevada that is losing money. In June of 1973 Raley's total sales were around 77 million and way short of the 100 million dollar volume he indicated he would like to have before he expands.
Why did Tom Raley promote Charles Collings to be president of his stores and not his son-in-law Jim Teel? Was it because Raley needed a real sharp con man at the top to deceive everybody in town? Based on the amount of theft that Nordby uncovered and going undetected throughout the entire Raley's grocery store operation, there is no way that Raley's company in 1972 could have been "doing very well" as Raley stated in one of the above paragraphs.
While Raley wants to talk about his produce suppliers and his produce warehouse, Nordby exposed Raley's produce suppliers to how they were cleverly overcharging Raley's stores whenever a buyer at Raley's ordered produce over the phone with their produce suppliers. Raley's invoices didn't show the same price that was given over the telephone.
Raley's history book, in 1989, stated it took Raley's three (3) years to pay off the purchase of the Eagle Thrifty stores. So why is this 1973 article (above), stating Raley's paid for it with cash? Because they were lying and trying to make it appear Raley's had money. A homeless man with 10 cents in his pocket had more value than Raley's at this time.
A tremendous amount of theft was going on at all of the Raley's stores in 1972. There is no possible way for Tom Raley to have stated he was doing well during this time period and be honest about it. Unless Raley himself was being misled by Collings too. After all, Collings and Teel were running the show (circus) in 1972.
Plus, with all of this dishonesty going on at the time, undetected, Raley couldn't have had the $3.5 million necessary to buy a chain of stores in Nevada that were losing money.
Raley's didn't even have any money to purchase Nordby's security windows in 1973.
