While 50 years may sound like a long time, when you\u2019re doing something you love, time just flies by. So says Murry Kalinsky, a customer sales manager in the metro New York area for Advantage Solutions, whose winding path through companies later acquired by Advantage began in 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 50 years at companies that became part of Advantage,\u201d he says, \u201cbut a lot longer than that in the grocery business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talking to Kalinsky is like getting a lesson in supermarket history in the Northeast U.S. \u2014 or a nostalgic trip back if you\u2019re old enough to remember some of the chains and companies he\u2019s been associated with.<\/p>\n
His resume reads a bit like an \u2018in memoriam\u2019 tribute to grocers lost to time \u2013 or at least absorbed into larger chains that dominate the landscape today.<\/p>\n
Kalinsky\u2019s career in grocery has been nearly lifelong, beginning with his first job in the late 1950s at Daitch Shopwell grocery. The regional metro New York chain was later acquired by A&P and formed the basis of today\u2019s The Food Emporium stores.<\/p>\n
After working his way up to manager and later into the buying office of Shopwell, Kalinsky in 1963 left to join the Prince Macaroni Co. \u2014 famous for its ubiquitous TV commercials claiming \u2018Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day\u2019 \u2014 doing direct-store-delivery sales for First National Stores. First National, whose name would eventually be shortened to \u201cFinast,\u201d would be absorbed by Ahold in 1988.<\/p>\n
But Kalinsky was long gone by that time, having left Prince Macaroni for food broker Sidney Becker Associates in 1973, marking the beginning of his Advantage career.<\/p>\n
Kalinsky spent the next 13 years at Sidney Becker, and in 1986 the company merged with Pezrow, one of New York\u2019s largest food broker organizations. That company was later acquired by Advantage Solutions.<\/p>\n
And now, here we are 50 years later. (On September 6, to be exact.)<\/p>\n
In his current role, Kalinsky calls on Krasdale Foods, one of the largest grocery distributors in the metro New York area, servicing regional supermarket chains such as C Town and Bravo, as well as more than 2,000 independent grocers along the Eastern Seaboard.<\/p>\n
The key to his success and longevity? \u201cI treat people with respect, and I ask for it in return,\u201d Kalinsky says. \u201cThat\u2019s true in business, and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
His colleagues are quick to confirm.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurry has shown exceptional dedication, drive, passion and, importantly, heart in all that he does on a daily basis to bring success to all the customers, clients and associates he has touched over these past five decades,\u201d says David Jaret, sales team leader, metro New York. \u201cSimply put, he has made raving fans of everyone he has worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalinsky, Jaret says \u201chas been a great mentor to so many of our younger, as well as older, associates, and I count myself among those he has shown the way. Murry will always ask for more to do, always with both a smile and a warm word.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Hyland, senior director of sales, metro New York, is grateful for the example that Kalinsky has set within the organization and with clients and customers in the market.<\/p>\n