c Abraham's Grocery Bill Abraham and his sister, Doris, started the first Abraham's Grocery Store in 1967. They used a small inheritance to start a small grocery store in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, and it was immediately successful. The location was good, and both Bill and Doris had winning personalities and a "serve the customer" attitude. Abraham's rapidly growing number of customers enjoyed an abundance of good meats and produce, for which Abraham's became well known. By 2007, Abraham's had over two hundred stores. Company headquarters moved to downtown am to supervise stores throughout the southeastern United States. There were four regional W responsible for about fifty stores each. Within each region, there were four districts of "hamm stores each. Bmfllb annes Wind in excellent meats and produce, there was a separate meat mw, my department manager, and produce department manager within each mm. mm Went manager also served as the store manager, but this person did not mm mm: mm department or the produce department. The store meat WWWWy to a district meat manager specialist, and the store produce WWMy to a district produce manager specialist. The store manager (3me W manager) reported directly to a district store supervisor. This "warm mmm Went provided excellent quality control over the m mm mm W individual stores. Hamm than within the stores. The tumover of store managers mm more [120me the meat and produce departments within (harm wnuiblo, such as when a store manager decided to monummmaem WE}. Hundreds of cartons of Coke were brought into the me fbi? (hb big into more department managers would not give up floor space todi'splay mm mb mw Gram manager insisted that this was no way to run a businm mdqun andre spot. Many atoms "umm conflict rather than cooperation among the meat, medium, and stole mm because each was very protective of their separate responsibilities. Doris Abraham asked a consultant for advice. The consultant recommended a reorganization within each store so that the meat, grocery, and produce departments would all report to the store manager. The store manager thus would have complete control over store activities and would be responsible for coordinating across the meat, produce, and grocery departments. The meat department manager in each store would report to the store manager and would also have a dashed-line relationship (communication, coordination) with the district meat specialist. Likewise, each store produce department manager would have a dashed-line relationship with the district produce The store manager would report directly to the district store supervisor. The district meat and produce specialists would visit individual stores periodically to provide advice and help the store department heads to ensure top quality in the meat, produce, and grocery areas.v i;. zmnntl 2: It was enthusiastic about the proposed structure. Store managers would have more Wald reSponSIbllity. By assigning responsibility for all store departments to the store W, His new structure would encourage coordination within stores and give managers the madam to local tastes and customer needs. The dashed-line relationships would ensure meat, grocery, and produce departments across all stores