This page represents an article that the Sacramento Bee published in October of 1972. It featured Tom Raley and told his story about his shoestring beginnings 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 the above paragraph, in October of 1972, Tom Raley is sitting in Raley's office building 1515 20th street in Sacramento. Not less than a year 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.
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 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. Mr. Raley's stores were a total mess. Who is Raley trying to deceive in his 1972 article?
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 to deceive everybody in town? Based on the amount of theft that Nordby uncovered, going undetected throughout the entire Raley 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.
