Filming took place at Family Dollar stores across the nation.
Mike Bloom is the President and COO of Family Dollar. However, for Undercover Boss he became Mark and tried four different jobs.
Lacy Klatt will be featured in the episode. She is the Assistant Manager at the Family Dollar store in Stephenson, Michigan.
“The closest big retail store is like 45 miles away, either way, north or south so yes people come to us mostly” she explains.
Lacy hasn’t had a TV in seven years, so Undercover Boss was the furthest thing from her mind.
“They told me that they wanted me to be like a job coach and they wanted me to train somebody. They wanted me to train this person in retail and this person was competing for half a million dollars, to open up their own business” says Klatt.
She spoke candidly to the cameras, not knowing her boss was stocking shelves next to her.
“The company doesn’t really think about us sometimes, doesn’t think about the little people in the store” she says in the episode.
“Why is that” asks Bloom.
“They send stuff that we don’t need, like 30 bags of cat food a week” Klatt explains.
According to Bloom ” As an employee in the store I heard things that I know I never would have heard. That is what makes this experience so valuable”.
While his training had a few bumps, Bloom learned what changes are needed to make Family Dollar run more efficiently.
“I can assure you I think of things differently then I did in May before I did the show” he says.
Lacy is excited to see the changes put into motion, but still is not sure she will be tuning in to watch the show.
“I am nervous about it just to watch myself on TV” she says.
Anyone who has watched Undercover Boss knows that the participants are usually rewarded. Lacy’s lips are sealed.
“It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it is never going to come across again, so yeah in that sense it was life changing for me. All around it was life changing” she says.
“If we take care of our employees we will take care of our customers by default” Bloom says.
Tomorrow night at 10:00 we will continue our conversation with Bloom to see what changes his company has made because of the show.
Undercover boss airs Friday nights at 7:00, on Local 5.
