announcer: "Undercover Boss" is back.
[dramatic music]
- Here's Bobby! - Oh, my!
- Whoa!
- This is 10 times harder than the boardroom.
- Oh, good gosh.
Had I not gone undercover,
There's no way I would've known anything about this.
announcer: The most devastating economic crisis
for a generation
has been tough on American business
and even tougher on America's workforce.
- We all had to take salary cuts.
- My wife, my kids, and I were all homeless.
- Wow.
- Well, how many firemen you think you down?
- 15 just because of the pandemic.
announcer: So there's never been
a more important time to go undercover.
- Coming through. announcer: This season...
- Wow.
announcer: The toughest challenges...
- This has got to be
the worst job in the restaurant.
- It is. Ugh.
announcer: The biggest shocks...
- I need to rethink everything that we're doing.
- We question whether you are fit for this brand.
announcer: And the most dramatic,
life-changing rewards...
- I mean, that's the greatest thing
you could ever do for me, man.
announcer: In "Undercover Boss" history.
- I need to break cover right now and shut this down.
♪
announcer: Tonight... - This is so hard.
announcer: The CEO
of a billion-dollar health brand...
- Welcome to retail.
announcer: Steps away from her corporate lifestyle...
- Hi, guys. announcer: To go undercover...
- I'm terrified.
announcer: Alongside employees on the front line.
- I'm gonna need your help here.
announcer: And faces the reality
of her radical, company-wide changes...
- This is a complete disaster.
announcer: With her plans to become America's
premier wellness brand hanging in the balance.
- All right, so we're gonna ramp this up a little bit.
- I just go, go, go.
announcer: She'll uncover shocking secrets...
- You broke so many rules.
announcer: And hear hard truths.
- Working sometimes even seven days a week.
announcer: Before transforming lives forever.
- Oh, wow.
announcer: All this next on "Undercover Boss."
- This doesn't happen to people like me.
Oh. [sobs]
♪
[upbeat music]
♪
- My name is Sharon Leite,
and I'm the CEO of the Vitamin Shoppe.
The Vitamin Shoppe is a health and wellness retailer.
We sell everything from multivitamins
to sports nutrition to herbs to healthy greens.
It's all about helping our customers
live their best life.
announcer: Headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey,
the Vitamin Shoppe has 780 stores across 46 states
and an annual revenue of $1.1 billion.
♪
- The success of the Vitamin Shoppe
is very personal because I'm very committed
to health and wellness.
I do enjoy a little yoga, and I get to the gym
every once in a while too.
So when I first started at the Vitamin Shoppe
two and a half years ago, it was just a great fit for me
because not only is it about building a great organization,
it's about truly making a difference in other's lives.
The Vitamin Shoppe has been around since 1977.
Its first store was in New York City.
announcer: The company grew steadily over 37 years,
but in 2014, sales began to decline dramatically.
- The customers just weren't shopping with us
the way they used to, primarily due to a lack
of digital and online presence.
The Vitamin Shoppe was pretty late to the party on that.
announcer: To survive, big changes were necessary.
- As a CEO, I've had to rethink
how this organization
was gonna be successful in the 21st century.
[dramatic music]
We embarked on things like curbside pickup.
We improved our "buy online, pick up in store."
Speed is everything.
We weren't getting our products
to our customers fast enough.
We weren't getting products to the stores fast enough.
So in our distribution centers,
I drove speeds through technology and robotics.
It's all about getting it to the customer
as fast as possible so they're not disappointed.
In every part of the organization,
we've changed so much, but I'd be lying to you
if I didn't think that there were things
that we couldn't do to be better.
[acoustic music]
- Mom, are you excited? - Yeah.
I'm really excited about it, but a little nervous.
Well, my name is Marie Miller.
My understanding is she's a little bit
of a hippie, kind of laid back, and kind of rolls with it.
- Not something you've done before.
[laughter]
[soft dramatic music]
- Hello.
- I love the Vitamin Shoppe
and the people who work for it,
and I'm responsible for huge changes
to make sure we have a bright future,
so going undercover is pretty terrifying,
because if there are problems with those changes,
I'm about to face them.
[dramatic music]
♪
[upbeat music]
♪
[laughs]
Oh, my God, this is hilarious.
♪
Hi, guys.
[laughter]
- Oh, yeah. - Meet Marie Miller.
What do you think?
- It's a look. - Thanks, Ryan.
So while going undercover, I'll be Marie Miller.
I used to run a gift shop
that unfortunately went under due to COVID-19.
- Show me how you're gonna introduce yourself, Mom.
- Hi, I'm Marie from Cleveland. I am--
- This is not convincing at all.
- No.
[laughter]
- So our employees will think they're on a documentary
about starting over in a new career,
and they have no idea it's "Undercover Boss."
- Bye, see you guys later.
- Bye, see you later. - Bye.
- My goal is to make us the market leader
in health and wellness.
Going undercover will help me understand
what's gonna get in the way
of our accomplishing that objective.
♪
One of the things that makes us
stand out from our competitors
is our highly trained store staff
who we call health enthusiasts.
We really rely on their expertise
around the products
and the knowledge that they have.
♪
So today, I'm going undercover
in Milford, Connecticut, with Glo,
who has seven years' experience
working in our stores,
because if there are problems on the front line,
I need to find them, and I need to fix them.
[soft dramatic music]
- Hi. - Hello.
Welcome. - Are you Glo?
- Yes, I'm Glo. Hello.
- My name is Marie.
- Are you ready for your training today?
- I am. - Here's your lanyard.
- Okay, great, and can I put my coat somewhere?
- Straight through the back doors,
and I'll meet you on the floor
in the weight management section.
- I'll be right back. - Okay.
♪
Okay, I'm ready. - Awesome.
So our first task for today is to learn about supplements.
- Okay. - So that's gonna be a doozy.
We have 8,000 products in store and 25,000 online.
- I mean, it's a lot.
- The best way to learn is hands-on.
Like, okay, we can go over something like this.
It has something called glucomannan.
It actually turns into a gel in your tummy,
and it makes you feel fuller.
- Glo starts showing me these products
and these very complicated ingredients.
- CLA is for fat burn. Right?
And then carnitine is for fat metabolism.
- They were so complicated,
I couldn't even pronounce some of the words.
- Magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide.
There's a full... - Wow.
- Ingredient list right there.
♪
- How do you learn about all this stuff?
Does the Vitamin Shoppe give you training?
- When you first come in here, the training isn't in depth...
- Okay.
- And it's really not that great.
♪
They only give about 15 minutes per little section.
- So you would only get 15 minutes
to learn about weight management?
- To be quite honest,
because it's, like, really basic,
I felt like I needed to get the education outside of here,
and I actually paid out of pocket in order to take
nutritional schooling... - Okay.
- In order to be able to help the customers.
- I'm upset that Glo
had to pay for additional education.
The training that we offer at the Vitamin Shoppe--
it's just not enough.
So you've been working full-time
and going to school full-time too?
- Yes. - How do you do it all?
- You know what? I'm Glo.
I just go, go, go. - [laughs]
We have to do better.
I have to make it easier
for our health enthusiasts to be successful.
- Now that we're gonna be taking care of customers,
we just got to wear masks.
- Okay. - Okay.
And are you ready? - Okay, let's go.
♪
- Hello. - Hi, how are you?
What's brought you in to the Vitamin Shoppe today?
- I'm looking for a probiotic for women.
- Okay. So, Glo, I need some help.
So the customers were asking me all kinds of things.
- Do you guys have any, like, organic protein?
- Ah, uh-huh. Hey, Glo.
I struggled because I didn't have
all of the product knowledge that I really needed to have.
- I am looking for something to help me retain weight.
- Like, how--what do you--
♪
I am completely overwhelmed.
Glo, I'm gonna need your help here.
Glo is gonna help me out here.
Glo.
♪
And quite frankly, I'm scared to death.
announcer: Coming up... - Surprise.
announcer: Sharon's delivered a disaster.
- So this one's broken.
- It's 'cause they mix everything up.
announcer: And finds fundamental failings.
- How come you're out of product,
but the warehouse has so much?
- Yeah, I don't know. - I'm shocked.
It's just unacceptable.
[dramatic music]
- It's my first day undercover,
and I'm working with Glo in one of our busy stores.
- Here we go. And I'm trying desperately
to help serve our customers.
- You guys have any organic protein?
- Ah, Glo, I'm gonna need your help here.
I am completely overwhelmed.
- I saw Marie kind of struggling,
and it was a little difficult for her,
so I just swooped on in, you know.
[chuckles]
This one actually has ashwagandha.
Guess what else is inside of there?
L-theanine. - Really?
- Yes. So now--
- I take that as a supplement too.
- Exactly. I remember.
That's why I thought this might be the right one for you.
- So not only do I think Glo is amazing,
our customers think Glo is amazing as well.
- So this is Marie. - Glo is the best.
- Is she? - She knows everything.
I love her to death. She's so helpful.
[upbeat music]
- So next we're putting you right on to the register.
You will have to be answering phones,
placing people on hold,
doing curbside pickup, pulling orders,
making sure everyone's greeted on the floor.
- Wow, sounds like a lot. - So it gets a little busy.
Okay. - Okay.
- Ah. [phone ringing]
- Okay.
- Sorry, sir, just a moment. - Sure.
- Good afternoon. This is the Vitamin Shoppe.
Marie speaking. How can I help you?
Glo's job as an assistant manager is a tough one.
Can you place an order for pickup?
You sure can.
So while I knew there would be a lot of things to juggle,
I didn't fully appreciate how much we have our team do.
Hello. There you go.
Have a good day. Thanks for shopping with us.
- You need to help this gentleman.
We have to say hello to the customers
that are coming in as well.
- Hi, welcome to the Vitamin Shoppe.
How are you today? - Good, how are you?
- Good, be right with you.
Yes, sir. How can we help you?
Not only does she have to service the customers
and provide all of that incredible product knowledge,
she also has to run the store.
- When no one else can come in, I'm always the first call.
So having complete open availability
is quite challenging.
- What do you mean by that?
- Open availability means always being on call.
I'm on call like a doctor.
Like just, "Glo, Can you come in?
This person's out. Glo, this person's sick."
Fill in the gaps,
fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps.
And open availability means I have to do it all,
working sometimes even seven days a week.
- Wow. - So every single day.
- Wow, the Vitamin Shoppe is really lucky to have you.
Such incredible dedication. Time for a little break?
- Yes, definitely for a break. - All right, great.
So as much as I love all of Glo's dedication,
I do feel terrible. She's working all these hours.
So I was curious.
You know, you were talking about the availability thing,
and I'm just kind of curious how that works.
- Having open availability, I missed out on just a lot.
During the pandemic, my nephew, JJ--
I wasn't able to see him at all.
He has a rare genetic disorder...
- Mm-hmm.
- Less than 70 kids in the world have it...
- Wow.
- And he's terminal and at risk.
- So you couldn't see him 'cause of COVID?
- Because of COVID, and I had to decide
between work and, you know, being able to see him.
I missed out on a whole year.
- And nobody could work for you?
- No, there was lack of coverage everywhere.
I volunteered to help for a couple of weeks.
- Uh-huh. - It turned into months.
- I was really saddened to hear that Glo hasn't had
the opportunity to spend that time with the family
that she loves so much.
You're really special...
- Thank you. - And really awesome.
- Thank you for saying that.
I don't really get that often, you know?
- Oh, Glo.
[soft dramatic music]
That really hurt because she is energetic.
She is passionate about what we do,
and her level of product knowledge
is absolutely extraordinary.
Somebody that works that hard for our company
should never feel that way.
♪
[upbeat music]
I was disappointed to learn that our associates
are facing challenges with the education
and the hours we provide them,
but I'm more optimistic about the work I've done
and the progress we've made with the supply chain
to keep the stores stocked.
One of the changes I've made to the distribution centers
is to get the product to our stores faster.
We had to focus on technological improvements,
robotics, and operational efficiencies.
♪
So today I'm meeting with Suzanne
in our Glen Allen, Virginia, store
to see how the store is dealing
with the new delivery system.
[soft dramatic music]
Hi, there. I'm looking for Suzanne.
- That's me. - Hi, Suzanne.
- Hi. How are you?
- I'm good. - Good. What's your name?
- Nice to meet you. My name's Marie.
- Marie, so glad you're here.
You're excited? It's gonna be a very busy day.
- I am. - Good, good.
- Looking forward to spending the day with you.
- All right, so here's your T-shirt.
Change in the back, and then our first task today
is gonna be shipments.
- Okay. Thank you very much.
- See you over at the boxes. - Okay.
[upbeat music]
- Okay, Suzanne, I'm ready to go.
How do I look? - [gasps]
Marie, you are now part of the family.
Welcome aboard for the day. Yay.
Okay, so this is our shipment.
We don't know what's in the boxes yet.
- Okay. - Surprise.
It's like Christmas.
[soft dramatic music]
- Wow.
So my first job today is to check in
the shipments and to put products away,
but once Suzanne opens the boxes,
I see this jumbled mess.
- So sometimes it's like Christmas when you open boxes,
and sometimes it's like "Nightmare Before Christmas"
when you open boxes. You just never know
what you're going to get.
- How do you make sense of all of this stuff?
- You don't.
Just put it all away in your own little way.
- Okay.
We have heavy products with lightweight products.
So this one's broken?
- It's because they mix everything up.
Sometimes we'll get bags of protein that'll be split.
$60 bag of protein.
So we can't sell it as product, so it kind of goes as damaged.
- Uh-huh, so do you have to do that a lot?
- Yeah.
- While we've made improvements
in the distribution center in terms of speed
and getting products to the stores,
when I see the shipment in such a disarray,
I'm disappointed that the robots
aren't working like I'd hoped. We have to make this better.
- So now that the cart's full,
we can start putting some stuff away.
- Do.
♪
- Fish oil.
- All right, so go find where the fish oil is on the wall.
♪
- Oh, my gosh. This is overwhelming.
I know that based on the way the product
comes into the store, this kind of jumbled mess,
that it's not gonna be an easy job.
- There you go. There you go.
- This is so hard.
I was a little scared about how long it was going
to take me to put this product away.
- We have barely made a dent in this cart.
Barely made a dent now. - I'm sorry.
I failed miserably.
Why can't I find anything?
- So it takes me 10 minutes to put away a box.
It took us 45 minutes.
It's simply just not good enough.
All right, so we're gonna ramp this up a little bit
'cause we still got 24 boxes to do.
♪
Put those right there. Good, good, good, good.
♪
Just put that right up at the front.
- I just love Suzanne's energy.
- So these are going to be BCAA.
So we're going to put these over on this wall.
- Okay.
She understands where they go,
and she knows all of the shortcuts,
which I clearly do not.
So, Suzanne, why did you come to the Vitamin Shoppe?
- I've been on a fitness journey myself
for, like, six or seven years. - Wow.
- I went from 300 pounds
when I first started, and now I'm 170, so...
- Wow, that's amazing. - Yeah.
So I've gotten really big into health and fitness,
and the Vitamin Shoppe is great because it's got
a lot of supplements that I just use personally.
- To hear about Suzanne's weight loss
is incredibly inspirational.
Her energy, her love of the product,
and the fact that she herself
is a health enthusiast is really exciting to see.
- So we're done with shipment for right now.
Another big aspect of working retail is customer service,
so I'll show you kind of behind the register
and how we help some of the customers that come in.
- I am new. - No problem.
- This is Marie, and I am Suzanne.
- Thank you for your patience.
- So you put their number in there.
- Okay. - And you hit Search.
[upbeat music]
- It's thinking. - It won't go.
So, yeah, sometimes the system will kind of go offline.
- So while we're behind the cash wrap,
ringing customers, the system crashes.
I have to wonder what's going through their mind
and what they think
of the Vitamin Shoppe at that moment.
- So our membership service is down right now, so...
- I'm supposed to get double points.
- When the registers go down,
it is definitely a big nightmare.
- Does the system crash a lot?
- Maybe once every couple of weeks or so.
[dramatic music]
- So Suzanne tells me
that the system crashes every two weeks.
- I tried log off, but that didn't work either, so...
- If the register system isn't working here,
it's likely failing at other stores too.
There's quite a lot of people in the store right now.
- There is. We are quite busy.
- So while the system is down, there is this line forming.
- All right, so just to let you know,
our system is down,
so I can't put in your healthy awards number.
- I'm getting very nervous
looking at this line of customers and the fact
that we're not able to help them
as quickly as we should. This is a complete disaster.
♪
- It's my second day undercover, and I'm working
in our Glen Allen, Virginia, store with Suzanne.
There's a lot of people in the store right now.
- We are busy.
- And the register system just crashed.
- So our system is offline,
so unfortunately I can't put your member number in.
I can still ring you up. Is that going to be all right?
- Okay. - Okay?
- When the system crashed, Suzanne just rolled with it.
- I'm gonna do this kind of fast
just so we can kind of get people out of here.
- I'm amazed at her poise
and how she managed through that time.
- It's retail. I mean, anything can happen.
You just have to kind of keep on trucking
and not--you know, remain cool and calm.
All right, so we've touched shipment.
We've helped customers. We've dealt with some fires.
So, yeah, that is the day in the life in the retail shop.
[upbeat music]
I'll usually go to the gym afterwards.
So I would like to invite you to come to the gym with me.
- Okay.
- And kind of see what I do
outside of the Vitamin Shoppe. You down?
- Yeah, sure, that sounds great.
- All right, let's go.
♪
All right, you ready to get this workout started?
We're gonna start with this tire a little bit.
So you're just gonna get under it like that.
♪
Okay? - Okay.
Oh, my gosh. - You got it.
Push through your heel. - What?
- [laughs] We'll do it together.
- All right. - Ready?
There you go. - Oh!
- Look at that!
♪
Yes.
So we're gonna do some kettle bell stuff.
- Okay.
- One.
♪
Two. Five.
Six. Eight.
Two more. Last one.
- Ten. - Thanks, coach.
- Great job.
I think you deserve a break now.
- Okay. - You can take a break.
- All right. Sounds good.
[soft dramatic music]
- Now that was a long day. - We got a workout in.
- Have some water. Yes, we did.
We got a little workout in.
- It was great. Thank you so much.
- I spend a lot of time at the gym.
- Do you? - Like, six days a week.
- You know, I like to kind of stay out
as much as possible
'cause, yeah, I live with a roommate.
She's been gracious enough to keep me on longer
than she probably expected to.
- Okay. - And it's just me.
Like, my son is older,
and then I had a daughter who passed away.
- Oh, wow. So sorry.
- So then I just kind of wanted to get out of the place
that her and I had and, you know,
just with one salary and had to just move
wherever I could afford. - Mm-hmm.
- Apartments by yourself are not cheap.
- Can I ask what happened to your daughter?
- So Kayla was born with a heart defect.
She was born-- like, the left side
of her heart didn't form.
She had six open heart surgeries.
She had a pacemaker.
She was the strongest person I know.
I have pictures.
Every single picture, she is smiling.
- Oh, she's so cute.
- She actually passed away on her 16th birthday.
One day, she ate dinner and went out on the playground,
and she kind of blacked out,
and then I was giving her CPR until the ambulance came
and got her to the closest hospital.
So we had some people come up
and, you know, say their little goodbyes and stuff,
and then we turned everything off.
So, yeah, that was rough.
- How did you do that?
I can't imagine what that would be like as a mom.
- Oh, I stayed in bed with her for, like, an hour.
Just didn't want them to come in.
♪
- As a mother, I can't even imagine
what it must be like to lose a daughter.
When I hear stories like Suzanne,
it just makes me want to help.
So, Suzanne, it was just an amazing day.
I can't tell you how inspired I am
and just want to thank you so much
for everything that you taught me.
- Oh, you're welcome.
- Today has taught me the importance
of really understanding
who the whole person is,
not only what they do at work,
but more importantly,
what they bring to work and what their life is like
and their personal life is like,
and when you can marry both of those,
it can be incredibly special.
♪
[upbeat music]
♪
To be a leader in health and wellness.
We have to make sure we have the right products
at the right time at the right stock levels.
Having seen how our product replenishment
comes to the stores,
so disorganized and sometimes damaged,
I'm hoping the technology
we use to order product is more of a success.
So I'm going undercover
in our Richmond, Virginia, store with Tracy,
from our stores team, to find out.
♪
Hi there. I'm looking for Tracy.
- I'm Tracy. - Oh, hi, Tracy.
I'm Marie. How are you today?
- Hi, nice meeting you. I'm doing well.
I'm just finishing up cleaning the windows here.
- Can I give you a hand or--? - Yeah, that would be great.
Thank you.
If you could just squeegee them for me,
that would be good. - Sure.
I was surprised my first task
was to help Tracy clean some windows.
Haven't kind of done this before, so...
- I know, yeah. It's okay.
- So Marie and I just really got right to it.
- Guess I should probably do it this way--oops.
- In retail, you kind of are expected
to just learn how to do different things,
and probably doing things she's never had to do before.
- How I'm I doing?
- A little streaky, but it's hard to get it completely.
- Okay. - She'll get the hang of it.
You just got to learn to roll, you know, with the flow.
All right, well, we'll go ahead and get the day started here.
So here's your name tag... - Okay.
- Just so if anybody has any questions,
they know that you're in training here.
So what we're gonna do first
is, we're gonna walk around the store.
There's a few things that I've noticed
that we have no stock, and we've been out for a while.
So I'm gonna try to see if we can get that.
So we'll go right over this way first.
[soft dramatic music]
This one's been out, I think, for a little while.
So I'm going to write this down
and see if we can get this from the warehouse.
- Okay.
- And there's another one over here that I noticed too.
- As soon as I walk in the store,
Tracy shows me these empty shelves.
It's so important to be in stock in our business
because if we don't have the products on the shelves,
the customer will just go somewhere else.
- So something that happens quite frequently
is, like, something will become out of stock,
and then we don't get replenishment in
for quite a while. - This is all news to me.
Our automated systems
are meant to make sure this doesn't happen.
So you don't have a way to order things yourselves?
- We improvise.
We'll just do, like, a--bogus BOPIS
is what we call it. - What's a BOPIS?
- "Buy online, pick up in store."
- Oh. - When it comes in,
it's actually not going to a customer.
We're just going to cancel that order,
and that's going to come for our stock,
and then we'll have it for our customer.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Oh, that's interesting. - Yep, yep.
- I'm shocked.
While I love the fact that Tracy is focused
on getting product for his customers
through the bogus BOPIS transaction,
the team should not be doing that at all.
♪
- So what we're going to do now is go ahead
and get these items added,
and I'll use my credit card to make the purchase.
- It doesn't bother you to use
your own credit card for something like this?
- 'Cause I know that it's not going to charge me,
I'm okay with it, you know?
- Really? - Yeah.
- Huh. - Yeah.
- When I heard that,
I didn't quite know what to say
'cause I was so surprised.
Tracy uses his own personal credit card
to get the bogus BOPIS to work.
That's completely against company policy.
It's just unacceptable.
♪
I'm undercover in Richmond, Virginia,
and I have discovered one of our associates, Tracy,
is breaking the rules
and making fake online customer orders...
- I'll use my credit card.
- And using the "buy online, pick up in store" process
to fill the shelves.
- When it comes in, it's actually
not going to a customer.
We're just going to cancel that order,
and then those items we'll be able to put on the shelf.
- That's just unacceptable.
[soft dramatic music]
- So we're just gonna take a look here at the warehouse
to see how much they have in here.
- Okay.
- So it's saying that we have plenty of stock--19,753.
- How come you're out of product,
but yet the warehouse has so much?
Like, why isn't that coming here?
- Yeah, I don't know.
♪
- I'm upset that things are worse than I thought.
This is exactly why I wanted to go undercover.
I would never have found out if I had come here as the CEO.
♪
- Actually I think what we'll do, too, is,
there's a couple of things that I know
I can get from another store. - Okay.
- Do you want to go for a ride to pick these up?
- Sure. - Okay.
- Let's go. - All right.
All right, and my car is right over this way.
- Okay.
[upbeat music]
Here we go.
♪
So, Tracy, how long have you been with the Vitamin Shoppe?
- I've been with the Vitamin Shoppe
about a year and a half now. - Okay.
- So I work for the Vitamin Shoppe part-time,
but with my wife losing her job,
I had to kind of get a full-time job,
and I'm working two jobs now.
[acoustic music]
- What happened? - My wife had an accident.
- Oh, no.
- She fell and actually shattered her wrist
to the point where she couldn't return to work.
It's left me being the sole provider for the family.
And we were already in debt, you know,
from, you know, things that happened previously.
Probably between $15,000 and $20,000.
We actually lost our house.
- Oh.
- And, yeah, we weren't prepared,
you know, to handle something like that.
- It's heartbreaking to hear that a great person
like Tracy has some really tough financial challenges.
- So here we are. - All right.
I'll hang out here and wait for you.
- Okay.
- And it was hard for me to hear
that he's having to work two jobs
to be able to support his entire family.
- All right. - So we ready to head back?
- Yeah. - How old are your kids?
- My youngest is four. - Oh, fun.
- And my oldest is six. - Oh, wow.
Boy, girl? - Two boys.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Bet you they are a lot of fun.
- Oh, they are, yeah.
When I get to see them, though, that's the thing.
I'm working 70 hours a week now:
40 hours, you know, at the new job
and about 30 with the Vitamin Shoppe.
- As a parent, I can't imagine what it must be like for him
not to see his two boys all the time.
Thank you. - Mm-hmm.
- But working 70 hours a week
makes it very difficult to do that.
Well, Tracy, I've really enjoyed learning
so much from you. Thank you so much.
All right. Take care.
- Take care. - Bye-bye.
- The biggest thing I took away from today
is the fact that our teams are having to work
around the system.
♪
Tracy is very good at his job,
but I have a major issue with the method
he's using to keep the shelves stocked,
and I need to think hard about what I do next.
[soft dramatic music]
♪
Going undercover was an amazing experience
because I got to see the company
through our health enthusiasts' eyes,
and I learned so much.
Now that I've experienced it myself,
I know the things that I need to do
to make the company better.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪
Today all of the employees have been invited
to the set of the fake documentary program.
- It's a documentary about someone who,
you know, has kind of had to start over
whose name was Marie.
- They think they're coming to film the final interviews.
- She did fine.
There were a couple of things
that she could have done a little better.
- But, actually, I'm going to reveal my true identity.
- I don't even remember half the stuff I said.
- And they have no idea it's "Undercover Boss."
♪
[soft dramatic music]
♪
Do you remember me?
I'm not Marie.
♪
My name is Sharon Leite...
- Wow.
- And I'm the CEO of the Vitamin Shoppe.
- Are you kidding me right now?
- And you are on "Undercover Boss."
♪
- Oh, my God. I trained my CEO.
[laughter]
announcer: Coming up... - Tracy.
announcer: Sharon lays it on the line.
- The fake "buy online, pick up in store" order
broke so many rules.
♪
announcer: And delivers life-changing news.
- Are you serious? - I'm very serious.
- [sobs] [laughs]
♪
- Hi, Glo. - Hi.
- It was a wonderful day with you.
- Thank you.
- I was amazed at the product knowledge
that you have, and even that you know the ingredients,
which--by the way, I can't even pronounce half of them.
- I put you through some stuff.
[laughter]
- So what I learned from you that day is,
we have to provide our health enthusiasts
with more product education.
So we're going to spend $1/2 million
on product education.
- That's so awesome.
- And I want you to be an honorary member
of our product education team. - Oh, wow.
- We're gonna give you $5,000 to help us with that.
- That's awesome. Thank you.
- Okay, so one of the things we talked about was,
you provide so much availability
for the company, and working a lot.
- Yeah. - Right?
- I haven't been able to see my nephew, JJ.
He's only four years old. He has NGLY1.
It's a rare genetic disorder,
and he, unfortunately, is terminal,
so we don't know how long. - Mm-hmm.
- Makes me really sad that I can't be around him,
and it hurts. That's a big sacrifice.
- Well, what if I could help you be near him?
So what I'd like to give you is $20,000
so that you can take care of the expenses
and have three weeks of paid time off
so that you have the time to be with your nephew.
[upbeat music]
Is that okay?
- Yeah.
Being able to be near him-- that's gonna be amazing.
Thank you.
- Well, Glo, you are absolutely remarkable.
- Really. - Thank you so much.
[tender music]
- Well, I got to tell you something.
I get to have three weeks off, and I can see JJ.
♪
- Oh, that's great.
You've been really far away from us,
but you we're gonna get us some time together.
- [speaking Spanish]
♪
[dramatic music]
- Tracy, when you showed me
the bogus BOPIS,
the fake "buy online, pick up in store" order,
I was shocked.
♪
How do you think that made me feel?
♪
- Angry.
- You broke so many rules.
♪
Quite frankly, it's a disciplinary matter.
♪
But it was also the biggest aha moment
I've had this week.
You did it for all the right reasons.
Because of you,
we plan to invest $1.5 million
in our inventory management system.
I'm gonna pay you $5,000... - Wow.
- To help us get the inventory management system
to a place where our store associates
don't have to do that kind of activity ever again.
- I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you.
[laughter]
- Tracy, you told me about your family
and your family situation.
There were some challenges with debt.
- I work about 70 hours a week.
My son last night-- he was very upset
to hear that I was leaving again, you know?
I always tell him, you know,
it's only for a little while, but, you know, it's hard.
- So I'd like to give you $15,000
so that we can get you out of the hole
that you're in right now. - I'm speechless.
You know, it'll take a lot of weight
off my shoulders, you know?
- Tracy, I saw how you loved what you did and wanted
to genuinely help customers. - Mm-hmm.
- You told me you were part-time,
and I want you full-time.
I can offer you a $20,000 increase
to get you full-time.
Will you do it?
- Yes. - Will you?
- Yes. - Yes?
- Yes. - Yes!
- It'll be, you know, life-changing to be able
to take care of my family and enjoy,
you know, spending time with them.
- That's wonderful. - Thank you.
I feel really positive about the future.
I'm just gonna be around more, you know?
It's definitely going to help my kids.
- Dad, where are you? - Yes.
I'll be back soon. Okay?
- And I'm very proud of you, baby.
I'm so proud of how hard you work,
and I hope that you know that and I tell you that enough.
I love you. - I love you.
- Hi, Suzanne.
I absolutely learned so much from you the other day.
What did you think of me?
- First part of the day, not so much.
Second part of the day was much better.
- What do you mean about the first part
of the day not so much?
- With, like, the shipment stuff.
- So let's talk about that shipment.
It was a jumbled mess. We need some help.
- Yes. - You are the delivery queen.
You know what needs to be done.
So we have our largest distribution center
close to where you live.
We'd like for you to spend time there.
And I'd like to give you $5,000 for your time.
[tender music]
- Okay. What?
[chuckles]
- And if you like the job there...
- Mm-hmm.
- We would like to make you a process manager,
which has the potential to double your salary.
♪
- What?
♪
This doesn't happen. This isn't happening.
- But, Suzanne...
- You're gonna make my make-up run.
[laughter]
- After shipment... - Mm-hmm.
- You taught me how to run the register.
- I did.
- The registers-- they actually went down...
- Yes, they did.
- While I was behind the register.
- Yeah, that was a mess.
- We know that those kind of clunky registers
probably need to go somewhere. - Oh, please.
- We're gonna spend $1.2 million
on a new mobile checkout system.
- Oh, my gosh, it's gonna make life so much easier.
♪
Wow.
- So when we were together... - Mm-hmm.
- You told me about your living situation.
Right, very gracious for what I have,
but it's not mine. It's not mine.
- I think you deserve your own home.
♪
- What is that?
- Take 'em. - What is that?
- So these are the keys
for the apartment we rented you.
♪
Because you need to have your own home.
- This is not happening. Are you serious?
- I'm very serious.
♪
- [sobs] [laughs]
Now my makeup is really messed up.
[laughter]
Oh, my gosh.
- The one thing that was truly inspirational to me
was the story about your daughter.
- She's inspired me.
You know, you think I inspired you.
She inspired me every-- she still does.
- So I know you're very involved
in the American Heart Association,
so I want to donate $10,000 in a Kayla's name,
to her memory,
so that she can help other children.
♪
- It's crazy.
♪
That's gonna do a lot. That's gonna do a lot.
You changed everything in my life in 20 minutes.
♪
- So, Suzanne, you're amazing.
I'm expecting a lot of great things from you.
- I am too now. [laughs]
I have another fire lit under me now.
It's gonna be all she wrote.
- I'll see you soon. - Very soon.
- Yes. - Okay.
♪
- This, like, changes everything.
This doesn't happen to people like me.
I'm a 45-year-old mom from Richmond, Virginia,
that works in a Vitamin Shoppe.
♪
It's been a long time since I've had a sense of purpose,
and I have a sense of purpose now.
♪
Jeez.
[upbeat music]
♪
- I had to make some tough changes
to make sure that the Vitamin Shoppe
was on the right path for the future,
but I didn't truly understand
how it impacted our associates
and their ability to do their jobs.
So while we still have much more work to do,
I couldn't be more bullish
about the future of the organization,
and it's due to the people that I met on this journey.
They really are the foundation of our success.
I am even more confident
that we can triple our revenue in five years
to truly be the leader in health and wellness.
♪
announcer: Stay tuned for scenes
from our next episode.