Male announcer: This week on Undercover Boss...
- the CEO of Modell's... - Okay, great.
Announcer: America's largest family-owned
sporting goods store...
Oh, my God.
Announcer: ...poses as a contestant on a reality show about people
trying to win funding for new businesses.
- Hi, are you the contestant? - I'm the contestant.
Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Angel.
Whoa! [Grunts]
Announcer: By working undercover,
he'll hear the ugly truth about what his employees really think.
I'm gonna be brutally honest with you right now.
I wanna hear it.
Okay. Why treat the Connecticut stores
like the red-headed stepchild?
Most upper management and owners, they're clueless.
Announcer: What will happen in the most dramatic reveal ever?
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
- Angel, are you okay? - [Crying] Oh!
Announcer: Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x01 - Modell's Sporting Goods Original air date November 2, 2012
Sync and corrections by atrn97g for www.addic7ed.com
Announcer: Headquartered in the heart of New York City,
Modell's Sporting Goods sells athletic footwear, clothing,
and sporting equipment to more than 10 million customers,
scoring revenues of more than $600 million a year.
Thank you.
Announcer: Overseeing the 3,800 employees
that keep these stores kicking, is one man.
I'm Mitchell Modell, CEO of Modell Sporting Goods.
Modell's has been a New York based company since 1889,
founded by my great-grandfather Morris.
It started out with a push-cart on Cortland Street downtown,
catering to people that were coming off the ships.
Selling accessories, knit hats, gloves.
In the 50s and 60s, my father led us
into the sporting goods arena.
Today, Modell's Sporting Goods is the largest and oldest
family-owned sporting goods company in the country.
We operate over 154 stores in 11 states.
Modell's Sporting Goods is a major sponsor
to a variety of teams.
The New York Yankees, the New York Mets,
the Brooklyn Nets.
And when a team wins, we pride ourselves
on being first to have the team merchandise
immediately after the game.
We will have it before any other retailer.
Retail is in my blood, it's in my veins.
My father, Bill Modell, wanted to make sure
that my brother Michael and I learned every part
of the business.
We both worked every job in the company.
In 1987, my father Bill made my brother Michael and I
co-presidents.
Both: Where you gotta go? You gotta go to Mo's.
Michael and I took the business from 18 million
to 443 million.
Running the business with your brother is incredible.
It wasn't about ego.
There would always be a tremendous amount
of trust and respect with one another.
He died of Hodgkin's, leaving three young kids behind.
It's tough replacing a brother who's been your best friend.
We went to camps together, we played ball together.
I think about him every day.
Michael was always that person who was a great listener.
He always had the time and people loved him for that.
Michael was different than me as a leader because
I'm a no-nonsense guy.
So if I went a little off on the deep end,
he would bring me back and reel me back in.
What's going on?
Could you check it out and call me back, please?
Everybody in my company knows that we watch every dollar.
We're spending a lot of money. Truthfully, it's sickening.
- This is not acceptable. - No.
If it doesn't drive sales or increase profits,
then what are we doing it for?
Hello?
This year I'm planning on opening up eight to ten stores.
We're gonna surround all our competition like locusts
as we continue our aggressive expansion program.
I have five kids altogether.
Two from my first wife and three with Robin.
I'm training my sons, Matthew and Max,
who are 11 and 10 years old, to be the future co-CEOs.
Every day I teach them a business lesson,
whether it be at breakfast or whether it be at night
when I come home from work.
What's the most amount of people on a line
before we open up another register?
- Ten. - Three.
Oh.
These are the basic principles of retail.
As a matter of fact, they have business cards
that say "CEO-in-training."
Part of my job as CEO is also entertaining.
Being in the sports world, we'll go to a game.
Uh, we'll hang out with the athletes after with their wives.
[Doorbell rings]
- Hi, guys, how are you? - Hi, guys.
I haven't seen you in a long time.
Nice to see you.
CC, we've been having some issues at Modell's.
I decided I'm gonna go undercover.
We watch all the Undercover Bosses.
CC, I might be calling you up for some advice tonight.
I wanna see you, like, in the warehouse,
like, driving the truck or something or whatever.
[Laughs]
CC, any advice?
Just try to disguise your voice the best you can.
Get skinnier.
That would be a problem overnight.
Shave your head.
You think that would stop people from recognizing me?
Shaved head, moustache.
How would you like having a bald husband?
You don't belong bald.
[Laughter]
[Buzzing]
Oh, my God.
I'm going undercover because when your last name
is on the door, it puts unbelievable pressure
to make sure that our values that have been passed on
for four generations
continue to be passed on for the next hundred years.
My wife leaves me, I'll never forgive myself.
Knowing that our people know me, I plan on changing my voice
to make sure that they have absolutely no clue.
My wife is definitely leaving me.
While I'm undercover, I'll be posing as Joey Glick,
a former pizza store owner that closed up six months ago.
Throughout my undercover journey, my associates will be
tricked into thinking they're on a hosted reality show,
in which they will work alongside Joey,
and then decide whether he deserves to win the money
to start a new business.
Today we're in Bronx, New York,
in front of Modell's Sporting Goods distribution center.
The man pretending to be the host of the fake show
will keep asking questions about whether Joey deserves the money,
so my associates will have no idea
that this is secretly Undercover Boss.
Honey! Could you come here, please?
[Gasps]
- What do you think of Joey? - I hate it.
[Laughs] Come here, sweetheart.
No, that's okay. You don't have to come near me.
That's perfectly fine.
Oh, my God.
- Oh, my God. - What do you think?
Love you. Be safe.
Being the CEO, I'm usually the last one to know things.
And unless you know what the customers and your associates
are feeling and experiencing, you don't have a handle on it.
And I really want to uncover things
that are being kept from me that I could help fix
and make the company a healthier company.
Today I'm in Milford, Connecticut,
and I will be working with an assistant manager.
Connecticut is a newer market for us, and Modell's
has only been here for about five years.
In this particular store,
we have been struggling with sales,
and I can't afford to have stores that are not performing
to my expectations.
We've already downsized the store once.
We cannot downsize anymore.
The last thing I want to do is have to close this store.
- Is James here? - I am James.
- Name's Joey Glick. - Nice to meet you.
I am the assistant manager of the store.
- Okay, good. - All right?
My first impression of Joe was I was picturing somebody
possibly just a little younger.
His voice threw me. [Clears throat]
Just a little gruff.
He was hard to understand at first.
This is your main drive aisle of the store.
This is where every customer is gonna walk down.
You come in to a table and every shirt is flipped over.
Are you gonna look through the table?
It doesn't look good.
You wanna look presentable, you want those customers
to enjoy their shopping experience.
So what I want you to do... [Grunts]
is keep them folded.
Lay it out, give it a flip.
- Fold. Fold. - Wow.
Flip. Flip.
Flip. Flip. Tuck and fold.
No.
Try and look for the old fold. There you go.
There we go.
We got another project for you right now.
We're gonna take this mannequin and we're gonna re-do him.
So what do you want me to put on here?
Anything you want. Be creative.
I'll be back.
[Grunts]
Jason? Oh, okay.
[Clattering]
Okay, bye.
That guy fighting you back? [Grunts]
I can't get his arm in here.
- I got one off. - You got one off. Okay.
Joey with the mannequin looked like an infant boy
trying to dress a full-size doll.
Okay.
You're working the front section of the store.
Look up, greet the customers.
That's 95% of your business is greeting that customer.
James is on top of his game.
He takes pride in the cleanliness,
in the merchandise presentation, in taking care of the customers.
- How are you doing? - Good, how are you?
But I still need to find out why the store
has been struggling with sales.
- Did you find anything today? - Oh, we're just looking.
- Okay. - Taking me out shopping...
All right, well, make sure you take advantage, take a look.
We've got a lot of good stuff.
When customers come in, do you generally have what they have?
There are things that we get asked for all the time
that we don't have 'em.
Give me an example.
We don't carry the high-end sneakers here.
And we get asked for them at least three times a week.
We have a... like, a help desk. It's called the call center.
We've called the call center, we just don't get them.
- Does that happen often? - Um...
How's business here?
Something about this guy, some of the questions that he's asked me...
Do you have all the sizes generally?
Don't have it all.
What, you can't go from there to here?
It has to go to the distribution center
in the Bronx first.
Does that happen often?
Why is he so interested in my distribution center?
I don't know. It's weird.
Um, the moustache was throwing me off a little.
I have a couple of suspicions, but I don't know.
Work in this section right here. I'll be back.
Whoop. Whoop.
How you making out there, Joe?
Okay. I think I got everything pretty squared away.
Not bad. I got a question for you.
I'm just curious. Do you know Mitchell at all?
Modell?
- What do you mean? - Have you ever met him?
There was a couple of questions that you asked me
that were out of the ordinary.
Jim just called me out. I must have tipped my hand.
Why would you worry about our distribution center?
Do you know Mitchell?
There was a couple of questions that you asked me
that were out of the ordinary.
I got a question for you.
Do you know Mitchell at all? Modell?
Just curious.
I am Mitchell Modell.
I thought you were much taller.
I need to really understand... you told me some stuff today
that obviously you are really frustrated on.
You know that sales has been an issue in this store
and that the next thing is I'm gonna have to
close the store if we don't get the sales up.
What are the things you need? How do we...
I'm gonna be brutally honest with you right now.
- I want to hear it. - Okay.
Why treat the Connecticut stores or the New England stores
like the red-headed stepchild?
Why don't you give us the stuff that's on 42nd Street?
You got kids playing football, they're your... my size.
They're not fitting in a youth extra-large.
- What... you have no adult pants? - I don't have any adult pants.
None. Again, the red-headed stepchild.
That's what you feel like. I'm not a retail guy.
I'm a retired firefighter.
I've had days here with frustration
being at a high level, to where I've looked
for a good burning building to run into
on the way home from work.
That's not who we are, okay?
It's heartbreaking to me.
21 years as a firefighter. I loved my job there.
But I love this too. Why? The people.
When I get a kid that comes in for a pair of football cleats,
and the kid grins from ear to ear,
that makes my day.
My daughter plays little league, she actually is playing
in a softball tournament today.
I'm here working and I'm missing it.
- The schedule's flexible... - It works great on paper.
But flexibility doesn't always cut it.
Sometimes there is no flexibility.
Nobody walks the talk here.
It's a salaried position, they ask for a 40-hour week,
but it's over 40 hours.
And that's why I had to quit coaching.
Mm.
It's painful to hear, but it's really, really important.
Great feedback.
I'm pulling this off. This is my disguise.
It's mind-boggling that I had to go undercover
to really find out what the truth is.
Here I keep telling everybody the associate's number one,
when in reality, they think they're not even
on the radar screen.
I have my work cut out for me.
[Phone rings]
- Dan? - Mitchell? How you doing?
I am so frustrated.
I mean, I gotta find out adult football pants...
we're in the heart of the season,
and they don't have a pair. How do they not have goods?
That's just not acceptable.
If I'm a district manager, I should have answers
to every one of these problems.
If they can't be strong enough to get things done,
then there's a problem.
I don't care if they're with us 50 years.
We're gonna root them out. We've got to change.
And we keep asking our questions
as to what's happening with Connecticut.
Now the question is how quickly can we fix it?
I've done one job so far in the Milford store
they were complaining that they're not getting
the merchandise assortment it needs,
and that's totally unacceptable.
Today I'm in the Bronx at the Modell's distribution center,
working with a shipping associate.
The reason why it's so important that I'm there is, as CEO,
it's my responsibility when there are problems,
I have to be Mr. Fix-it.
Hey, I'm Joey. Is Christopher here in shipping?
Straight this way.
After I went through the headaches
of shaving my entire head and putting on this crazy
walrus moustache,
the last thing I want to do is blow my cover
like I just did in Milford.
I'm looking for Christopher.
Hey, what's up, man. Are you the contestant?
Joey.
I'm gonna show you basically what we're gonna be doing today.
- All right? - Good. Good.
I don't know, this man kind of looks drunk.
- Chris, can I get a water? - He looks intoxicated.
Like he's just been drinking all night and all morning.
Grab a box. Here we go.
However you want to put it, as long as it's firm and sturdy.
There we go.
Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this tape...
[Tape ripping]
and wrap it all around.
[Tape ripping]
- Whoa! - All the way up.
Now you try.
[Tape ripping]
[Grunting]
[Tape ripping]
All right.
Help you out a little bit.
All right, you're good to go with the tape.
Now I'm gonna show you how we use the machine
to load the truck.
Right here is what we call a walky-rider.
All right, and basically what this machine does
is it picks up these pallets and we can load them
onto the trucks.
All right, to go forward, you just rotate forward.
Mm-hm.
To go reverse, you rotate back.
Now you try it.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Let's take it easy.
Hey, hey, hey. Ready? Ready?
Now drive forward. Nice and easy.
There you go.
Make sure your forks are lowered.
- Whoa! Unh! - All right. All right.
- Whoa! - All right.
When Joey was on that rider, he looked scared.
No, you're driving the wrong way, buddy.
He was sweating bullets.
He just looked like a scared kid.
No. Up, up. Keep it up. Keep it up.
All right. Nice and slow.
Riding that high-low, it was wild.
- Oh! - Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
Meme up. Stop, stop.
On a 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I was a minus-6.
I'm feeling a little unsafe about you being on a machine.
So I'm gonna let you do this pump-jack. It's a little harder, but it's much safer for everybody.
All right?
I need to live. I need to live.
He's gonna use the pump-jack for today.
So all you gotta do is pump it up real nice.
Make sure it gets it up high.
Keep pumping. Keep pumping.
Roll it in. Roll it in.
Slow! Slow! Whoa!
Unh!
It's not balancing.
Chris to the rescue.
He was almost getting crushed by a pallet.
He was leaning over.
I honestly think he wouldn't be able to last in this job
for more than two or three months.
Gonna keep building pallets.
I can't believe how labor-intensive it is.
How they do this, it's just incredible.
- So where are you from, Joe? - Brooklyn.
So what kind of business are you hoping to invest in?
I want to open up a sports memorabilia store.
- Do you plan to have workers? - Yeah.
Make sure that you treat them fairly and you pay them fairly.
Okay?
'Cause look at me, I'm doing manual labor
for minimum wage.
You see the type of work I do, you know?
It's tough work.
And for the amount of pay that we get,
we come home with about 230 a week.
That's a pair of sneakers for some people.
When Chris told me that he only takes home $230 a week,
my heart sunk.
I know I've been putting unbearable pressure
on our management team about controlling expenses,
and I just wonder whether we went too far,
particularly in paying people minimum wage.
I never looked at it from the aspect of,
"what does the job entail,"
"and are they being compensated fairly?"
I'm living check to check to support myself,
my brother, and give my mother rent.
You know?
Family over everything.
- How many in your family? - Just me and my brother.
I take care of him.
Anything happens to him, I'm there, you know?
That's the one pride and joy I got.
- My younger brother. - Does he go to school?
Yeah, my brother is smarter than me.
Never been arrested.
Never touched drugs. Never touched liquor.
I taught him not to make the same mistakes that I made.
I lost my dad, so I didn't have that sense of guidance,
you know?
How old were you when you lost your dad?
Three years old.
My father was gone, my uncle was locked up.
I'm not gonna lie, I was struggling.
I was struggling.
I may not have made it, but my brother will.
My older brother took care of me.
Michael would love the values that Christopher espouses.
It's all about family.
It's all about taking care of each other.
This is something that Michael always preached.
Let's get back to work, man.
When I look at the situation in our distribution center,
I've gotta change this.
I'm gonna make sure that we're a company
where people feel good about coming to work,
and feeling that if they're gonna work hard,
they're gonna be recognized and rewarded.
Right now, that is not the case, and I feel horrible.
[Tape ripping] That's how you do it.
[Lock clicks]
When my brother Michael was alive,
he was always that person that made us such a special business
to our people, who always felt part of the family.
And obviously somehow or another I might have gone off track.
And I'm sure if Michael was alive today,
we wouldn't have gone off the path.
I would do anything to get him back to help me.
But the reality is, Michael is not here.
And it's my job to pick up the slack.
[Sighs]
Find first gear.
Announcer: The boss gets kicked off the job.
Clutch! Clutch! Clutch! [Rumbling]
I am not getting in the truck with Joey
to go anywhere out of this yard.
I can't let you drive.
Announcer: And later...
his tough shell cracks.
Things are gonna get better. You're gonna be fine.
Announcer: Mitch Modell, the CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods
is a boss undercover in his own company.
- Joey. - How you doing, man? I'm Chris.
Announcer: His employees think he's a contestant
on a hosted reality show, trying to win money
to open his own business.
His journey continues in the Bronx.
So far, my first two jobs led me to uncover some things
about the company that really upset me.
Today I'm back at our distribution center.
The drivers are the link between the distribution and the stores.
I don't get to visit this facility as often
as I would like.
So I want to take this opportunity
to work a different job and see if the truck drivers
feel the same way that Chris did yesterday.
I'm really hoping today goes better.
- Are you Kirk? - How you doing?
- You the contestant? - Hey. Joey.
- How are you? - How you doing?
This... this is what we're gonna do today.
I'm gonna teach you how to operate that tractor.
Okay?
Joey looked like a clown. He looked funny.
Okay.
You know? I mean, but hey, Albert Einstein looked weird
and he was a genius.
[Engine rumbling]
[Grunts]
Now, Joey, please, let's not damage nothing.
- You drove a car before, right? - Yeah.
Forget about that. It's totally different.
Oh.
Let's just make sure you know where everything is.
Right? [Exhales]
You know where your clutch is, right?
Step on your clutch, see how it moves.
You know, move it up and down.
[Springs squeaking]
Yeah, hold the clutch in, now you're gonna start it, Joe.
[Engine rumbling]
All right.
Now, be very careful, step on the brake.
Okay, put it... put it in first.
Now ease off the clutch. [Air hissing]
You stalled it.
So wait a minute. Free it up again.
No, no, you... start it.
[Engine rumbling]
All right, clutch.
Release your brake.
Now easy. All right. Pop your brakes.
There you go. All right.
You...
All right, let's try it again.
Put your clutch back in. Find your gear, okay?
Now clutch.
Brake.
Clutch, clutch, clutch. [Engine revving]
All right, Joey, I think we're gonna, um, have to...
- Yup. Okay, I'm ready. - No, you're not ready.
You're making me nervous.
I can't let you drive.
I am not getting in the truck with Joey to go anywhere
out of this yard.
I'm gonna have to be your pilot for the day.
[Engine starting]
- So where are we going now? - We're going to...
we're going to 181st and Heights.
We're gonna do your crash course in lumping.
- Lumping? - Yeah.
- What's lumping? - It means unloading the truck.
By hand.
You're gonna have a newfound respect
for truck drivers after today.
I will teach you everything I know if you want to learn.
I want to learn.
We're gonna start with lumping.
Could we start after the lumping?
[Laughs] You wish, huh?
Not in this lifetime, partner.
Hey, see? You kill two birds with one stone.
You're carrying a lot around with you, partner.
That will... you will leave some of that in the truck.
He's not in the greatest of shape,
and this is a real intense job.
[Brakes hissing]
What are you doing? Should we get some grapes?
No. We're working.
Yeah, sometimes you got to skip lunch
and get your job done and eat later.
Everything ain't marshmallows and cherries.
Oh, no, they got cherries.
- I'll take your word for it. - Right now he wants to eat.
So maybe he should get a job baking pies.
See, here go the problem here. You see?
There's a truck out there making a delivery,
and there's no place for me to park.
This is a rough time to come to this neck of the woods,
'cause this place is always crowded.
I always think about buying and selling merchandise,
making sure the customers are happy,
but never thinking about the process along the way.
Now we just play a waiting game.
We gotta wait for this truck to move
so we can move ourselves up.
And this always happens like this?
Yeah, man, it's getting worse now, you know?
They need management to come down here
and reassess the delivery process in these stores,
make a decent time frame.
We're not always in a position where we can do our job.
And we've been here a long time...
been here a while.
Most upper management and owners, they're clueless.
All they look at is the bottom line.
And because they look at the bottom line,
they lose focus on what really happens.
My brother Michael, he is probably turning
in his grave today.
He probably can't believe that I would be so distant
from the reality of what's going on in these stores
and the distribution center, and he'd be very upset with me.
I've worked a lot of places, I've never seen drivers
turn over so much in my life.
And what's causing that turnover?
Overall, look at the comparison of salaries
to other companies for the kind of work we do.
We don't only drive, we unload too.
Look at the hours we're forced to work.
You have to take all that in consideration
before you make an assessment of how much you're gonna
pay somebody.
He always said, "we have to stay close to our people."
I feel that whoever is, you know, the owner of the company...
Who's that?
Mitchell. That would be Mitch Modell.
I feel that if he knew how his bottom-line employees felt,
he'll make a change.
- Did you ever meet this guy? - No, no, no.
He rarely comes around.
I'm personally devastated.
We don't listen to our truck drivers,
we don't respect them.
I wasn't responsive to them. I take full responsibility.
Over an hour.
Our communications is lacking,
or even nonexistent.
I'm embarrassed, and I just can't believe how people are...
why would even people still want to be with us?
Even though our family started our business in New York,
Michael and I decided in 1996 to come to Washington.
Since then we've opened up 15 stores in the area.
Today I'm in one of our stores
that we've just opened last year.
I will be working with one of our managers
of the apparel department.
This is the last job of my journey.
It's been extremely hard so far,
and I know I have a lot of work to do
when I get back to the office.
Is Angel here?
Oh, yeah, let me show you where she at.
My last retail job with James didn't go so well.
Why don't you give us the stuff that's on 42nd Street?
- What... you have no adult pants? - I don't have any adult pants.
- None! - So I need to make sure
that the consumer here
feels that we're the hometown community sporting goods store
in this particular area.
- Hi! Are you the contestant? - How you doing? I'm Joey.
I'm the contestant. Hi, nice to meet you.
- I'm Angel. - How you doing?
I guess that I'm working with you today.
Yes, you are working with me today.
- How's that sound? - Let's do it.
All right, great.
What I really want you to focus on today, Joey,
is customer service, 'cause that's the basis
of everything that we do here, okay?
This is G.A.M.E.
It's an acronym that was made up by our company,
and what it shows is basically great customer service.
"G" in G.A.M.E. is
"greet every customer with, 'what can I help you find?'"
My first impression of Angel is, I'm blown away.
The understanding how important customer service is.
And it's great to see as CEO are things that I totally believe in
is being filtered down at store level.
"E" is "end each transaction by saying,
"'thank you for shopping with us, '" okay?
Boy, you know your stuff.
Yeah? Thank you. You're gonna know it too.
How long you here?
I started when the store opened.
I really like it, and I know you're gonna do
really well, okay?
- Do you know why I'm here? - Why don't you tell me?
I just closed up my pizza place in Brooklyn...
- Oh, wow. - And I want to open up
- a sports memorabilia stop. - Oh, really?
Joey, I got you. Don't worry about it.
All right, go ahead and grab that.
We have some backpacks that are on sale.
I'm gonna have you put signs on those, okay?
Are you scared of heights?
- Yep. - I hope not.
[Grunts]
The hardest was getting up on that frigging ladder.
Oh, my God.
The thing was shaking.
I don't know what the weight capacity was,
but thank God it held.
[Grunts] When you're as heavy as I am,
you try to save as much energy,
and it's easier to waddle like a walrus.
This is probably the best exercise I've had in ten years.
I'm gonna have you work a little bit more on the floor.
So right here, all of these shirts should be going
from small, medium, to large.
These are all extra-larges.
The small and medium sell pretty fast,
so we're getting another truck Monday.
But if they need it before then,
we can just get it from another store.
We've got no small, mediums, or larges here either.
Yeah, they all... they all sold out.
There's a lot of small and medium people
in this town, you know?
As CEO, when I hear that we are out of stock,
it drives me up a wall.
What can we help you find today?
Rubber things to put over the handlebars of my bike.
But it doesn't look like you guys carry those.
When a customer comes in and we don't have the item,
my stomach turns upside down.
There were too many customers walking out without packages.
What can we help you find today?
When we disappoint them,
we could possibly lose them for life.
So this is the stockroom, Joey.
So when you start your business,
you're definitely gonna have to have a room somewhere
to store all of your... all of your stuff in, okay?
And this is good to see how big I should keep it because...
Yes.
So you tell me that you had a pizza business.
Why did you close your pizza shop?
I had it for about 12 years,
and just too much competition on the street.
I closed it up about six months ago.
Wow.
Yeah, it's a very sad thing happening to me and...
Joey, I... I think... I think you're very brave, and I...
You know what? Sometimes you may have ups,
and sometimes you may have downs,
but as long as you drive yourself,
you're gonna be fine. Just keep it going.
Myself, I love this job. This is very good.
But it hasn't always been this way.
What happened to you?
When I turned 25, I ended up being pregnant.
And I was a manager at a restaurant.
And then I got too far along, I couldn't work there anymore.
And ever since then it's just, like,
times have been really, really rough.
It's, you know... we've been homeless for a long time.
We live in a shelter now.
It doesn't mean that...
You live in a shelter? What kind of shelter?
It's a homeless shelter.
Been there for about, like, two years now.
I have three children, you know,
that are in school and stuff like that.
I have a 4-year -old, a 3-year-old,
and a 20-month-old.
- Oh. - Yes.
It doesn't matter, though.
Don't... I don't want you to feel sad
for me or anything. It was way worse than that.
We've slept at bus stops,
we've been down to where as though
we didn't have any money to eat.
- You understand what I'm saying? - Mm.
And I'm gonna tell you something.
Things get better.
As long as you have that drive in there,
as long as you push and you push...
[Voice breaking]
things are gonna get better.
[Sniffling] You're gonna be fine.
I have never experienced a moment like this.
Knowing what she's gonna be going home to,
it literally broke my heart.
I'm the one who decides how much our associates are paid.
And to think that one of our associates
is homeless makes me sick.
I'm gonna listen to what you said.
People like Angel deserve better,
and I know this company and myself can do better.
A baseball field is such a sacred ground for me.
When I reflect on this week,
I feel I've failed miserably as CEO.
I am appalled with myself
having seen some of our associates who seem so stressed
and so frustrated.
Because I know the kind of pressure I've been exerting
on the entire organization to reduce expenses,
and it came at the expense of our associates.
It's incredible how I see the company
in a totally different viewpoint.
After this week, the promise that I want to make
to my brother Michael,
is that I'm gonna fix it.
I will reinstate the core values
that he so passionately believed in.
Announcer: The boss summons his employees to Citi Field,
home of the New York Mets, where they think they're meeting
with an investor to give feedback on Joey's performance.
How will they react when they find out
Joey is really the boss?
I'm Mitchell Modell, CEO of Modell's Sporting Goods.
[Breathless] Oh, my God!
I've invited my associates to Citi Field,
home of the New York Mets,
because it's where my first love for sports began.
They think they're coming to meet
with a wealthy celebrity investor,
to secretly advise him
on how worthy I am to receive seed money for my business.
I honestly do think Joey's ready to open a business.
I think they are gonna be absolutely shocked.
- Something wrong? - Joey?
I'm not Joey.
What do you mean? You are Joey.
I'm Mitchell Modell, CEO of Modell Sporting Goods.
You are not. I've seen you before and you...
you... they couldn't make you look that different.
I've met Mitchell, like, once or twice before.
- He had a lot of hair. - I shaved my head.
So what is this?
Did you ever watch the show Undercover Boss?
No, I've never watched that.
Oh, man, that's crazy.
[Laughs] No, y'all didn't do this to me.
Why you did that to me, man?
Yeah, you... you got me. You really did get me.
Jim, I mean,
I just can't believe I blew my undercover there.
Like I said, I always knew you were a little taller.
How are you feeling about the whole situation?
Glad that I could get the candid opportunity
to say the things that I did to you.
Why treat the Connecticut stores
like the red-headed stepchild?
I heard exactly what you said
about the merchandising problems.
So I met with my executive team,
and we're putting in place
someone who's gonna manage the inventory
for the Connecticut stores, so I get you
the right product in the right stores at the right time.
That's awesome.
Jim, in addition, because of your dedication,
we want to make you
an ambassador supervisor/ assistant manager,
whereby, let's say 60% of your time,
we want you to go out there and, uh... talking to the league
so that we can drive sales.
I could... that... I'm... I'm really excited about that.
Thank you so much.
We have the utmost confidence in you.
I know you're gonna knock it out of the park.
But, you know, there's more to life than just working,
and I feel terrible that you missed
a lot of important events in your family.
And that's not who we are.
I want to send you, your wife, and your girls
on a family trip.
Seven days, six nights.
You'll have expense money, airfare, transportation,
all provided for, okay?
You're not being charged against your vacation.
[Exhales sharply]
- We... this will be on me... - Wow.
For me screwing up.
Wow. That's great.
I know the girls will definitely enjoy that, getting away.
I know my wife will too.
I'm feeling fantastic.
Every time we've gone away, I've had to max out
a credit card just to go away.
This is definitely gonna be where I can sit back and relax,
and not have to worry for once.
Christopher, you told me about the pay scale
and I gotta tell you, because of my time
in the shipping department, we're gonna be changing
the whole compensation program in the distribution center.
Wow, thank you, guys. That's amazing and, um...
You know, we try to work hard.
And I think... I think a lot of people deserve it.
Which brings me to one more thing.
After we met, I did some research,
and I was looking at your attendance record.
Oh, boy. [Laughs]
Oh, boy. Yeah, I've missed a few days.
Because they... what they told me is
if you miss 1 day within the next 90 days,
I understand you might be terminated.
Yes.
Listen, I think you're a great associate.
If you make a commitment and you show up every day
for the next 90 days,
I'm prepared to write a check for $20,000.
Oh, man. Oh, man, that's crazy.
Oh. Serious?
- Are you up for the challenge? - Yes, sir.
You know, when I heard you talk about your brother,
it made me reflect on my brother who I lost 12 years ago.
And it brought a lot of memories back of, you know...
he always took care of me.
It was really... it really hit home,
and was really special.
I just want to keep him on the right track, you know?
And I love the way you're like a father figure to him.
So what I want to do for you,
and what I want to do for Adrian is,
I've arranged for a trip for two
on the Brooklyn Nets' team plane
to an away game, all expenses paid.
You travel with the team,
you stay at the team hotel with the players,
you'll go to the away game.
You will have the extraordinary time,
and it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
I really appreciate that. Thank you.
I can't believe it.
Really, I can't. Oh, man.
I just feel blessed right now.
I think I did need someone to come into my life
and tell me that I mattered, 'cause honestly,
I haven't heard something like that in a while.
Now that he's given me the opportunity to do right,
I'll make sure I do right
for not only my brother now, for his brother.
Kirk, you gave me a great education.
Clutch, clutch, clutch.
[Truck stalling]
And I'm embarrassed to say
I never looked at a truck driver until I went undercover
and worked a truck with you.
And I have a whole different respect level for you
and the other 18 truck drivers.
Thank you.
You have opened my eyes about the tremendous turnover we had
in truck drivers, and I love your suggestion
that we should have different pay scales.
If the company is expecting someone...
to have them wake up at 3:00 in the morning,
or drive a truck at midnight...
Yeah, why don't they compensate them for that?
So we're gonna be looking at that,
and changing it immediately, because of you.
That's good, you know?
I mean, I guess I did my part.
You know, after going through and spending a day with you,
I think that you shouldn't be a truck driver anymore.
I think you deserve to be a yardman supervisor.
A lot of problems get swept under the rug.
You're not afraid to deal with them.
So, obviously, with this promotion,
we're gonna adjust your salary.
Here's your new business card.
[Laughs] What do you think about that?
So, there's something else I want to do for you.
I have a check for you,
for the sum of $50,000.
Oh.
And I'm paying the taxes.
[Exhales sharply]
That's like... that's like saving somebody's life.
I appreciate this. You don't know.
I appreciate what you did for me.
And for the company.
You really opened my eyes.
This is a new beginning then.
A new beginning. Thank you.
I used to feel that all he wanted was the bottom line.
But Mitchell took the time to sit down with us
and see the ins and outs of the company,
and I really feel them owners appreciate us now.
I got a total different outlook on him.
Angel, here you are,
a department manager in apparel,
teaching me and showing me every inch of the way.
You were just amazing.
I just hope that I'm doing good for you.
It was above and beyond
anything I could have ever expected from an associate.
With your talent level,
and the way you care about the company,
you're the kind of leaders that we want in our company.
And that's why I'm promoting you to assistant manager.
[Cries] What?
Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry, I can't believe this.
We're giving you a $14,000 raise.
What? [Screams]
[Laughs]
You deserve it.
Oh, my lord! [Cries]
The stuff I've been through...
Are you serious?
I think about that homeless shelter where you go home
every night since I left you.
It kills me to see that you're still there.
And so I have a check for you.
- What? - 'Cause I want you to move
out of there, immediately. Like, tonight.
What?
No, you cannot be serious.
I'm serious.
And so I have on me a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God. No.
[Breathless] No. Oh, my God.
Oh, my goodness. Oh!
Angel, are you okay?
Oh, my good... [Cries, laughs]
I have a financial advisor that I'm setting up with you.
And taxes are taken out, so it's $250,000 net.
What? Oh, my God! [Cries]
And I don't want you to live
in that homeless shelter ever again.
I'm gonna tell my children
that we're not going back to the shelter anymore,
that we're gonna have our own place.
Oh, my God. Ah!
They can run out back, and play in their backyard.
They can be kids. [Cries]
[Cheers and applause]
What a week.
It was the most incredible journey.
And I'm gonna share this with the entire organization.
My wife has not kissed me since I took my hair off.
[Laughter, applause]
This journey for seven days was the most incredible education,
both personally and professionally,
that I've ever witnessed.
And I just want to thank all of you.
[Cheers and applause]
After working this entire week,
I am physically and mentally exhausted.
[Laughter] Yeah!
Aw, yay! [Cheers and applause]
I realize I am in such poor physical shape.
In order for me to make sure that I'm gonna successfully
pass on the torch to my kids,
I have to make sure I'm in better physical shape,
so that I could be around for my kids,
I could mentor my boys as they grow up.
I want to make sure that I don't leave them the way
my brother Michael left me.
[Cheers and applause]
I'm definitely committed to getting into shape,
as well as getting the company into shape.
Sync and corrections by atrn97g for www.addic7ed.com