Undercover Boss

Kroger Co CEO David Dillon frequently joins shoppers at Kroger stores in an effort to see one of his stores through the eyes of a customer and to help identify why the shopper makes the choices he/she does.  Dillon tells Wall Street analysts that the nation's largest traditional grocery chain has sophisticated consumer data none of its competitors can match. But he still frequently does shopalongs, visits consumers in their homes and peeks into their cupboards, shops stores alone and incognito, and drops in on employees unannounced.  Such up-close-and-personal study of consumers, employees, and stores has been part of the management style of an executive whose grocery experience goes back four decades to his family's Dillon's grocery chain.  By being in the stores, by doing the shopalongs, Dillon personally commits himself to making Kroger a better company on Main Street, which makes it a better company on Wall Street.  Shoppers are urged to be critical. They usually aren't aware that Dillon is a Kroger employee, thinking he is a market researcher and making it more likely they will speak bluntly.  Their feedback, combined with data, has led to changes in staffing, training and technology to create faster checkout lines, more-helpful employees, and cleaner stores with better presentation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101110/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ceo_goes_shopping