Karen Kistler

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Alisa Stone, the senior director facility leader at the new Macy’ Customer Fulfillment Center in China Grove, was the guest speaker for the final Power in Partnership breakfast for the season as it will take a hiatus during the summer and return in September.

Held on May 15 at Salisbury’s Trinity Oaks, the room was filled for the event, which also featured the graduation of Leadership Rowan Class No. 32.

Duke Energy served as the sponsor for this month’s program. 

“We are glad to be a sponsor for the breakfast this morning,” said District Manager Joe Crapster. “We love Rowan County.”

Crapster then turned the program over to Rowan Economic Development Council President Rod Crider, who introduced Stone noting that she has more than 25 years of experience in multiple facilities including Walmart, Target, Gap and Macy’s where she started out as an associate while in college. After college and going into her career, she has now returned to Macy’s in this leadership role.

“She is committed to this community, and we couldn’t be happier to have her here,” said Crider. “She cares about her team and her community.”

Stone began her presentation telling that she was born in Cincinnati and is a daughter, wife, mother and nana something she said she always does “because you have to be who you are and show up correctly in order to be your best self at work.”

Stone also told the crowd that being on the water is her refuge and her passion is people, and then looked to the Leadership Class graduates and told them to “be yourself, be your own authentic self. Bring you to the table and then the rest of it is going to come into play.”

During her PowerPoint presentation, she shared the three points to her plan and broke those down. The first was developing a team and explained there would be diversity in thought on that team.

Stone said that on this team “everybody’s got a seat at the table. The chairs are all the same size. I will be your umbrella and will protect you, but when it’s time to shine, I will walk to the side and let you get your glory. And that’s what it’s about to build a team.”

She pointed out that now she has 22 people on payroll and 12 of those are from Macy’s organizations from across the country. 

“We’ve got 550 years of supply chain experience,” she said, adding that they have six people who came in at the director level.

“I’ve got Macy’s, Target, Walmart, Amazon, QVC and Chewy. Several of them are from the area. I have nine leaders on the team that came from within an hour drive of the building itself. So we’re trying to get local, make a commitment to local,” she said.

The second part of her plan is impacting community, as they have made a commitment of doing something in the community every month.

In May, Stone said, they had 23 volunteers participating in the United Way’s Day of Caring, helping do some work at China Grove Elementary School.

Other events include working with Habitat In June and a blood drive during November, which she said is peak time for them, “but we’re still going to do something in the community.”

What Stone said she wants is for them to be a “positive conversation around the dinner table.”

She went on to explain that she wants the community to be happy that Macy’s is there and for the “colleague population that when they go home, they talk about being treated consistently, working in a safe environment.”

Showing up in the community, she said, “is a huge focus for us.”

The third part of her plan is continuous improvement. She said that if you do something, you should make it better and “if you think you’ve got the perfect solution, you need to engage more folks and resources and make sure you get more people involved.”

Her presentation included explaining who Macy’s is and their operating philosophy, which included trust, which makes strong teams, service to community and colleagues, excellence means impact, understanding creates connection and anticipation is welcoming.

Macy’s gives back, Stone said, as she noted they have invested in community at every place they are located, as well as donating to those in the Macy’s community who may be facing a catastrophe and volunteering in the community. 

“We’ve already got 275 hours volunteered so far in the community, which is kind of crazy since we just started in November,” she said.

Attendees then got a look inside the building as she shared drone footage of the facility after which she provided a timeline for operations.

She said that the walls went up in 2022 followed by the inside being constructed. They are currently in the testing phase and will start receiving product in June with shipping beginning in September.  

The final portion of her PowerPoint provided some details of the features of the facility which includes its AutoStore grids that store product in a space-efficient system using robots; pocket sorter, which is an order combining system; and AutoBaggers and AutoBoxers that pack orders in an efficient way. 

It was noted in the presentation that “China Grove will be the largest facility in their network, with the highest productivity and throughput capacity.”

Stone concluded her time by once again encouraging those there to be their authentic self as they go about their work and that if they are part of a team or are building one, to “show up correctly through support and development, always be the active listener, help folks to problem solve, focus on your family and your community.”

When asked what she wanted those listening to take with them from the day, Stone said, “that Macy’s is an organization that wants to integrate itself into the community, and we want to make sure that we’re complimenting what already exists.”