Joe Mazzara’s customers care enough to complain and that’s what he loves about them. 
The general manager of Ken’s Meats & Deli, 5725 Monona Drive in Monona, counts on his customers to let him know when they’re unhappy. 

“These are my customers and I want them happy,” says Mazzara.  “Our customers know that if they get something that is not quite correct, they can let me know.  It’s not a problem.  We tell them to take another no charge and make sure it’s 100 percent to their liking.” 

Ken’s employs as many as 50 people during its busy summer season.  Many of the employees have been with the market several years with the shortest full-time employee at 3 years.  Pictured from left are Jacob Armour, Joe Mazzara, Lynne Fett, Jim Jacobsen and Ken Fellerson.

For Mazzara taking care of his customers is like taking care of his own family.  And in a way his customers are family.  Many of his regulars have been coming to Ken’s since before he started working there back in 1980 when he was 16 years old.  Mazzara has worked at Ken’s through his high school and college days, remaining with the neighborhood market after turning down a career in architectural engineering. 

What it boiled down to for Mazzara when it came to a career choice was people.  Having that interaction with people every day is so important to him.  Over the years he has watched children come in the store with their parents.  He watched them grow and eventually come in with their own families.  There are people who you don’t see for a long time and then one day years later they come in again and the relationship resumes.  “They might not be here all the time,” says Mazzara.  “Their habits and lives change.  Maybe at first they had five kids to feed and now it’s just one person to feed.  So they come in less.  Or they’re snowbirds so you only see them six months out of the year.” 

The one constant that has never changed over the nearly 40 years Ken’s has been in business is Ken’s itself. Still there at Monona Drive and Owen Road.  Mazzara says people find comfort in that permanence, knowing that Ken’s has been there at the same location, as everything else is constantly changing. 

“It’s just a comfortable place.  It’s a place you just walk into and you know where everything is, you know that the people are going to meet and greet you, you know that you are going to see the same people there.  It’s like your old-time grocery store.” 

Ken’s Owner Ken Fellerson bought the market back in 1967 from Butch Strickler, who was selling a string of area PDQ markets that he owned at the time.  Ken’s became a reliable constant as Monona and surrounding communities continued to grow.  With that growth came changing needs and Mazzara says they are always working to stay in sync with those evolving customer needs.  One way they have accomplished that is by offering more than the standard meat market and deli choices, and stocking just about everything that you can get on a trip to the local supermarket.  Their wide selection of bakery goods and fresh brewed Victor Allen’s Coffee are a big hit with folks, especially first thing in the morning.  Then there’s their impressive selection of nearly 150 different wines and a wide variety of beer choices.  Today with the busy lifestyle of most families, Ken’s has made available a wide selection of ready-to-eat meals that people can pick up on the way home from work, pop in the oven or microwave and serve. 

“You got two people working all the time.  We foresaw that lifestyle need and satisfied it.”  The next step Mazzara says is to see what will take place in the next year or so.  With the downturn in the economy people are going to be a lot more price conscious.  Mazzara says this means he will need to be right in line all the time with what the customer wants and running good specials to keep them coming in.

Even with the tough economic times, Mazzara believes that they will do well against the larger grocers and supermarkets that cut costs by buying in bulk.  One place Ken’s beats its larger competitors is on service.  “You will spend five minutes here and get everything you need rather than parking underground at the Wal-Mart, going up the escalator and taking 45 minutes to get four or five items.”  During the lunch hour, Mazzara says they take care of customers quickly as they come in for sandwiches, soup, sodas and other lunchtime fare.  The personal touch is another point where he says Ken’s beats the big boxes.  “You can’t walk into Wal-Mart and say I want a half pound of ground beef and you can’t have someone wait on you.  You are going to go there and pick something off the shelf.  It’s a sterile environment with no human interaction.  Even when you’re checking out at Wal-Mart they’re just sliding those things over and there’s no conversation.  I think people are moving back to that old-time good feeling of the neighborhood market more so now than they have in years past because it has gotten so cold out there.”