Undercover Boss (2010) s03e08 Episode Script
Yankee Candle
This week on Undercover Boss, the CEO of Yankee Candle, the world's largest candle manufacturer, poses as an out-of-work chef looking to learn about the retail business.
- I'm Dan.
- You're the guy, huh? I'm the guy.
Should I put on my apron? Definitely put on your apron.
Cool.
By working on the front lines, this high-powered perfectionist will see what it's really like to burn the candle at both ends.
Sorry about that.
Time to make the candles.
- Oh, man.
- That's the last thing we need, is customers to get hurt smashed jars.
The biggest pain, you know, kids are gonna get messy.
But what will happen when he learns that not all of his employees share the same enthusiasm for their jobs as he does? They'll dip it a million times.
Leave you a mess like this.
Sometimes, I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 3x08 - Yankee Candle (March 30, 2012) Hello, welcome to Yankee Candle.
Headquartered in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, Yankee Candle Company is the largest candle manufacturer in the world, making more than 200 million candles a year and producing $730 million in annual revenue.
Overseeing the 6,400 employees that keep this business burning, is one man.
I'm Harlan Kent, president and CEO of Yankee Candle.
Yankee Candle started in 1969, by Mike Kittredge.
Mike was about 16 at the time.
Didn't have enough money for a Christmas present for his mother.
he realized he had something, and the rest is history.
Today we have about 550 stores.
Our sales last year were $730 million.
And our plan is just to build the business to over a billion dollars.
You think of candles as just something that you have to decorate your home.
It's much more than that.
I think that we're really in creating-emotions business is really what Yankee's all about.
I believe fragrance is a trigger that then brings you back to wonderful moments in your past.
People have true connections to our candles.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
We evaluate over 2,000 new fragrances a year.
The first fragrance is holiday berries.
Okay.
There's a lot of science that goes into candles.
You can't just add fragrance to a candle and then it's gonna smell okay.
It's how that fragrance works with the wax, once you add a wick to that, how that changes the whole fragrance experience.
I'm getting a lot of the earthy notes, are you? Yeah, I love it.
Makes me think of staying in a nice hotel.
Oh, yeah.
Those are things, you know, that I take very seriously.
I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, with my parents and my sister.
It was certainly an affluent town.
I went to High School at Phillips Exeter Academy, then Dartmouth College.
My parents thought that it was incredibly important that my sister and I really work hard in school.
And you certainly felt pressure.
You always really cared what your parents thought of you.
So you always were trying to live up to their expectations, and, um, I was always trying to impress my dad.
I definitely didn't see eye to eye with my dad always.
When I was a kid, he thought it would be interesting to get a pilot's license.
So he used to take us up in the planes and practice stalls and do all sorts of crazy things like that.
He's fearless.
And he was very comfortable living by the seat of his pants.
And I'm less of a risk taker than he is.
When I was gonna interview for Yankee Candle, I called my dad.
And he said, "that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
" "Nobody's burning candles on the dinner table anymore.
" And I said, "dad, these aren't those kind of candles.
" "These are, like, fragrance candles.
" And he goes, "well, I don't know what those are," "but that sounds like a horrible business.
" You know, he said his piece, and then he left it up to me.
I don't want to fail at things and I don't want to let my dad down.
Every day, I worry about that.
I've been CEO for two years now.
This is my first chance to be a CEO.
I'm constantly worrying.
Are we doing all the right stuff? What could go wrong? One misstep could destroy your brand if you don't do it the right way.
There's a lot of pressure.
You don't spend a lot of time sleeping.
Oh, nice catch.
I'm incredibly lucky.
I have a great wife, and we've got three kids.
- What kind of defense is that? - Too fast.
Things have worked out really well for me, personally.
Oh, they're looking good.
Yup.
Always been a foodie.
I went to cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
So, Harlan, are you nervous about what you're about to go through? I'm incredibly nervous.
Harlan is very hard on himself.
- He's a perfectionist.
- Perfect just like a fancy Italian restaurant.
He sets very high goals for himself and his company, and he works really hard to make those goals happen.
All right, guys, let's eat.
- Oh, man, that smells good.
- Mm-hmm.
I'm definitely going undercover to help us be the kind of company that I think we can be, and that's a billion-dollar candle company.
It would break my heart if I walk into a store and our associates are rude or not approachable.
I want to see, firsthand, are we really bringing that emotion, in terms of how we're making our products and how we're selling our products in our stores.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Dan Johnson, a chef from Cincinnati, Ohio.
My coworkers will be told that I am a contestant on a reality TV show called Second Chances, where I'm given a second chance at starting a new line of work.
Hey, Patty, Jack.
Yeah? I have to tell you, you look a lot younger.
Hey, don't be touching my soul patch.
See you, guys.
Bye, dad.
Today, I am in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, at our flagship store.
This is the most important store, in terms of setting the tone, for the Yankee Candle brand.
This is a great store for families.
We've got the husband and wife there's a lot of great products for them.
But there's also great things for kids.
We've got make-your-own-candle stations, we've got wax hand station.
What I'm interested in seeing here is there a real focus on customer service? Are people having fun and are they feeling good? Because when people are feeling good, then they buy stuff.
I'm looking for Blaze.
We need to make this retail-tainment.
Are you Blaze? - Yes.
- I'm Dan.
- Nice to meet you, Dan.
- Hey, how are you? - Good, how are you? - This is such a big place, it took me a little bit of time to get around here.
Understandable, understandable.
So I'm gonna be training with you today? - Yes.
- Cool.
We're gonna do a few different things.
We're gonna do a wax hand, which is just make a cast of your hand out of wax.
It's definitely popular.
We're gonna do "dip your own candle," which you take the different colors, put them over the wax kids really love it.
Great.
You're just taking uncolored wax and you're dipping it in vats of colored wax.
Guest comes up you have the chart, and the instructions to make a rainbow.
Over here, the biggest pain is just, you know, kids are gonna get messy.
Hi, how are you? You want to make a candle today? - What's your name? - Taylor.
Taylor? All right.
Done this before? Yeah? A professional? - Very nice.
- Here? Okay.
Oh, is that a Christmas tree? - Oh, that's so pretty.
- Nice.
Where are you guys from? - Just north of Greenfield.
- Okay.
- Is that it? - Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Absolutely, have a great day.
Those people were incredibly nice.
They're not all gonna be like that.
A lot of the times, you know, they'll come up.
Little kid they'll just kind of want to make a mess, do whatever.
That's a pain.
Give me just a second, I'm gonna be that hellish child.
They're gonna come up Oh, my God.
"I dropped it.
Can I get another?" "Well, no, you definitely dropped that in there," "'cause, you know, [.]
.
" And there has been instances where you're gonna want to strangle and slap the kid.
Oh, my To be completely honest with you, I have the worst temper.
Can't stand in line at a supermarket without getting pissed off at the guy in front of me for talking on the cell phone.
As much as, you know, you hate your boss, hate that woman you're working with, with the really high, screechy, annoying voice, you got to keep that Yankee Candle big smile.
That's pretty much the biggest part of the whole job is just making sure that you look happy as much as you hate whoever you're working with.
He's angry about some things.
I'm not sure what exactly it is that's making him angry.
But that's not great for all the rest of the team who does think that it's a great place to work.
They'll dip it a million times leave you a mess like this.
As bad as this comes across, sometimes I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
All right, come on.
We're gonna do some wax hands.
That'd be great.
Basically what happens is we go back and forth between wax and water, a bunch of times, on your hand.
And we make a cast of your hand, like this.
Bring it home, put it on the mantel whatever you want.
Come around this side.
It'll be easier.
Let's get this started.
Right down there.
Right up onto your wrist.
Whoa, that's cold.
Phew! - That is freezing in here.
- Yeah, take your hand out.
You're just gonna shake it off just a little bit.
Just kind of scarecrow the elbow.
This hand relaxing go into the wax.
Take it out.
- Find all the imperfections.
- Smooth it.
Okay.
Just takes a little bit of practice.
Then you just have them figure out whatever color they want.
And it's just like you're putting their hand in this one.
The only difference is It's colored.
So, you know, they get kind of nervous they don't see what it is.
See where it's going.
Just kind of explain how it's the exact same thing, exact same temperature.
It's a lot cooler, 'cause it comes out a color.
- It's the hulk.
- Absolutely.
So cool.
It's a weird situation to throw yourself into throwing people's hands in wax, that you've never met before.
- Okay.
- Keep that there.
It's odd.
You want to tug it just a little bit.
Big knuckles.
It's my big knuckles.
No, it happens all the time.
Wouldn't say I'm a specialist yet, but, uh, usually it would come out pretty and wonderful, and you'd have a hand.
But that's basically the whole process.
- Cool, okay.
- Want to give it a try? Yeah, sure.
Have some fun.
I'll be around, all right? All right.
Who's getting their hands done? It's a really awkward, time-consuming process as it is.
It's quite chilly.
So he's gonna suck at this.
You guys have got great hands.
These are some of the nicest I've worked with.
Jake, what do you think? How's this looking? - They looking okay? - Yeah.
Oh, perfect.
Oh, you're doing great.
That was the hard part.
So let's turn your wrist over this way.
There we go.
Look at that! - Yay.
- Isn't that amazing? - That is cool.
- Okay.
Okay, come on in.
He already looks like he knows what to do.
When this thing stands up, you can put this on your mantel.
That came out perfect.
I can't put my finger on what's going on You actually turned out to have the perfect-sized hand.
But things just don't seem to be fitting together naturally.
He seems too good at the situation.
- Want to go take a five? - Sure, that'd be great.
- Come on, man.
Wow, that standing up gets tiring after a while.
Yeah, right? So how long have you been doing this? - Two years.
- Okay.
What about you? What's going on with you? Had a restaurant, but, um, - ended up having to close it.
- That's rough.
Just looking at some other ideas.
I mean, you're you're good at this, man.
He was in the restaurant business.
I don't know about anybody else, but when I go to get a steak, not too often is the guy like, "hey, you want a wax hand with that?" I mean, you seem unnaturally comfortable - doing the stuff here - Hey, look to the extent that I I can't shake it, like you've done this before.
Kind of driving myself insane in the fact that I want to ask him about it, 'cause he does seem familiar - Well, yeah.
- Get back? - Yeah, I guess.
- Let's go.
But at the same time, I don't want to come out and be like, "you're #$&* me, aren't you?" All right, let's go see if they need our help.
Oh, all orange.
Nice.
Harlan Kent, CEO of Yankee Candle, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Got a weird feeling about this.
But maybe not for long.
Seems like he's really good at doing this.
He just doesn't look natural.
He's really suspicious.
I don't like deceiving him.
I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I just say, "here's who I am.
" Hey, Blaze.
- How'd it go, man? - Oh, it's good.
I want to talk to you straight, for a second.
So my guess is, uh, you have some ideas that I probably might not be a chef - who's come here from Cincinnati.
- Maybe a little.
Is that kind of the way it was going? - Yeah.
- So, uh so my name is Harlan Kent.
I assumed it was you, Mr.
Kent.
You don't need to call me "mister.
" I'm not that old.
But, um, when I listen as Harlan Kent, I hear certain things.
When I listen as Joe Schmoe, I hear a lot more real things, in terms of what's going on.
It sounds like you've got stuff that isn't working here.
I just told the CEO that sometimes I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
That's kind of like, okay, well, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I came to work.
If you're not even thinking, "hey, this is great," or "there's stuff that could be better here" I'd love to spend some time with you, um, just catching up afterwards.
This is a job where you need to be passionate about it, or it's probably not necessarily the best place for you.
Now is not the time and place to have a conversation with Blaze, but I'm gonna need to talk with him some more.
Because I need to get a lot more information before I can make an informed decision here.
You don't know me well enough, but I really care about this stuff, like, you have no idea.
- So have a good night.
- You too, man.
I'll talk to you soon.
Today, I'm at our plant in Whately, Massachusetts, and I'm gonna be working on the line.
This is our only plant at Yankee Candle, so this is where 100% of our candles are produced over 200 million candles a year.
The candles made here will wind up in stores throughout the United States.
We also export all over the world.
I'm looking for Jose.
Okay.
What I really want to see is, are we passionate about quality, in terms of how we're making the product here? And after getting discovered by Blaze yesterday, I'm really hoping my disguise holds up.
Excuse me, are you Jose? Yes.
How are you doing? - You're the guy? - I'm Dan.
How are you? - You're the guy, huh? - I'm the guy.
Finally here to do your thing, brother.
- I am, I am.
- We're gonna be packing here.
We're working on the end of line seven.
We will pack the jars that will come to us in the end.
- So first, here, right here.
- Good to go? Yeah.
You're gonna be taking a quick look at labels.
Sometimes they might be a little off-center, but that's all right.
But if it's way too off-center, just got to put it aside, upside down.
And then you can give it to the label operator in a little bit.
Things that don't look right? That's a big deal here? Oh, just put yourself in a customer's shoe.
What if, like, you bought this candle and you get it like this.
I mean, you're kind of gonna ask yourself, "well, I'm paying $14.
99 for this candle.
" "I want it to be good.
" Yep, that sounds good.
Go ahead.
Please give it a shot.
- Okay, so I've got - Pull it right there, yep.
You just throw it right in there, yep.
All right, in here.
Make sure there's six in there.
Oh, you got to be careful there.
Now, if that ever happens Check to see if I make sure that you see if there's a crack in it.
'Cause if you cracked and you send it, - that's a cracked candle.
- Jose was all over quality.
Right from the get-go, everything was about quality.
That's the last thing we need is customers to get hurt - smashed, charged.
- I want no cheaters.
I'm feeling good about that.
So how many of these can you do? - 8,000? - Yes.
So I'm gonna leave you alone for a minute.
I'll come back and check on you.
I'll do my best.
Oh, man.
The speed and pace of all this stuff is really fast.
So lids were falling off left and right, I couldn't make the boxes fast enough, I was way backed up, so this has been a little tricky for me.
Okay.
You're killing me, here, just killing me.
Dan is definitely letting the jars pile up too much.
I mean, you've got to stay focused here.
You've got a disaster here.
I'm gonna help you out a little bit here, Dan.
Try to we're gonna get caught up here.
I am letting you down, bud, I'm sorry.
I think Dan came in here with a little bit of cockiness, but it kind of humbled him instantly when the jars started piling up.
Some people come in and think it is gonna be easy for them.
I did not think this was gonna be easy.
So what do you like about working here? To be honest with you, man, I think sometimes it's hard in a big company like this, I think it's kind of hard to move up.
- Yes.
- I think it's kind of hard to move up, because I'm not a kiss-ass.
I've kind of seen a lot where guys were pretty good at kissing ass and moved up in life, in this company.
- Playing the politician game.
- Is there a lot of politics? Oh, lots of politics, my friend.
I think it takes a lot of ammunition out of people.
When they feel that way, they won't work as hard.
That's not a good thing at all.
You got to put 100% into it.
You got to put 100% into it.
That's what life is, man.
I mean, no one's gonna do it for you, man.
I would never take what I've been through in my life, I wouldn't trade it.
My dad was a heroin addict.
He died at a young age.
I was 16 he died, in 1985, of AIDS.
He ended up catching AIDS from shooting needles.
I have actually witnessed him shooting needles.
with seeing him die slowly.
My mom was very heavy into selling drugs.
You know, can you imagine me being a freshman in high school? I'd get home from school, I want to pour a bowl of cereal, ATF breaks right into the doors front and back boom.
What are you gonna do with that? So who raised you then? The streets.
The streets raised me.
When I was 16, I was really fortunate I was in boarding school, I was focused on my schoolwork.
I wasn't trying to survive.
These guys are fully masked, and AK-47s in the backyard.
I'm a kid, man.
Imagine what that would do to my mind.
Jose hasn't had a whole lot of positive role models in his life.
I feel incredibly lucky that I had my parents and that I have my dad.
I've been given a tremendous amount.
I'm a really lucky person.
I think struggles teach you how to just deal with life, man.
- In Lowell, Mass.
- Yeah.
Me and two partners of mine I was a former professional fighter we have just recently opened up a mixed martial arts gym in Greenfield, about a month ago.
We got a few students working out.
Hey, maybe, if you're interested, after this, we could probably head down there.
I could give you a nice little workout see if you got that mental toughness.
I would like to try that.
I'd probably think that was very cool.
So they don't give you grief when you walk into the gym smelling like frosted cinnamon? Can't be an animal all the time, right? I guess.
- This is the end of the run.
- Okay.
Got to say, Dan, you handled that pretty good.
Thank you for saying that.
- Send this through.
- Okay.
You tell the gentleman this is the end of the run.
After you, my friend.
- This is it.
- This is incredibly cool.
Team Ravenous in action.
You should have seen this place when we first looked at it.
It was nothing but dirt, dead rats in the corner.
Good band of brothers, right here, man.
I mean, this is we don't need something really fancy.
What for? I mean, we're fighters.
This is gritty.
Where'd you get the money for that? We actually had a couple fundraiser parties, - that we had last summer.
- Cool.
And we had a bunch of people come in with raffle tickets - And that's how you bought - The mats.
How we bought bags, but, um, I'm just glad to have this, though.
Because if I can see a kid going the wrong way, I can introduce him to this, and I just know he's gonna love it.
Today was fabulous for me.
I mean, Jose is a tremendous person.
These guys it's all about hard work and relying on yourself.
And I genuinely feel honored and feel really lucky that a guy who's as much of a stand-up, quality guy like that is working at Yankee Candle.
Coming up We've got about 24 minutes to open.
Harlan gets up close and personal with the dirty details of retail.
- How're we doing? - Good.
Today, I'm in Peachtree City, Georgia.
I'll be working with one of our store managers.
The Georgia market is a more difficult market for us.
And this store, in particular, is not doing as great as we would like.
So I'm not sure what all is going on here.
I'm interested in finding out what's impacting this store's performance.
- Hi, how are you? - I'm Dan.
Nice to meet you, Dan.
I'm Megan.
- Come on in.
- Hi, Megan.
It smells great in here.
So we need to get the floor vacuumed and make sure that everything looks good.
You're gonna want to push it up, like that, so it'll roll.
You want to make sure to get everything around the front, 'cause our guests, when they first come in, that's your only chance you have to make that best impression.
It's on the side.
Retail is details.
And it's the little things.
I'd like to make sure that the experience that our customer has is perfect every single time.
Our day started off slow.
I think Dan's doing good.
He does need to move a little faster though.
We might also want to grab a broom, 'cause we can see all these cobwebs up front here.
We're gonna get the insides of the big windows also.
Okay.
But go ahead and get all that swept out.
- I will, all right.
- Mm-hmm.
- Is this an old store? - It is.
This store is over ten years old.
You know, it's been around for quite a while.
I had a gentleman in my store, the other day from corporate, and I was trying to explain how, when you're walking up on our store, the first thing you see is the cracks and the splits in the wood.
But it didn't seem that didn't seem like it wanted to be listened to.
How the store looks is important.
I'm a type "A" guy, and this is really, really tough.
It kills us, not to have absolutely spotless, spanking clean stores.
And I want to work really, really hard to figure out how to get that fixed.
Let's take that on back to the bathroom, - 'cause you're gonna need it.
- All right, I'm on it.
There is no job that is too low for anybody at Yankee Candle to be doing.
How are you ladies doing today? - Good, how are you? - Doing good.
It's the job of everyone to make that store look perfect.
Smells like real apple cider, doesn't it? It's already taken him a little bit longer than it should.
And that's extra time that he could be putting towards another task.
How're we doing? - Good.
Not bad.
- Looking good.
You got it nice and spiffy.
All right.
We're gonna go ahead and get on one of the shelves.
We're gonna get it cleaned and straightened.
And you're gonna need to remember everything you see, 'cause you need to make sure that you set it back exactly the way you see it.
You don't want a customer pulling for a jar and having a big, old dust bunny on the end of it, come out in their face.
That's really not gonna make 'em want to buy anything, - so, yes.
- I don't know what a dust bunny is, but that sounds bad.
Okay.
Look at the shelves that are around it.
Do you notice anything different between those shelves and your shelves? There's a lot of space in them.
- That's right.
- That's a problem.
Yup.
That's what I was thinking about the space.
I was going, "why do I have so much space?" Now, I know.
Gives you the ability to house another six jars and keep those out of the back room.
Everything's pulled forward to the front? - Yep.
- Okay.
So we want to get the customers to come into the store.
So it's always good to entice them with coupons.
And don't be discouraged if somebody tells you no.
- Okay.
Hi, how are you? - How are you, today? Would you like a coupon for Yankee Candle today? - I'm good.
- Okay.
See? It's okay.
Don't get your feelings hurt.
It's all right.
All right, let's walk up this way and see if we can drum up a few more customers.
- Where are you originally from? - Cincinnati.
But, um, it's been a tough economy.
I can definitely feel you on that one.
My husband and I, we owned a tattoo studio.
People started cutting back.
Tattooing was a big one.
Not only that, but I have epilepsy, so I can't drive.
Really.
Have you always had it? - Ever since you were a kid? - No.
Um, it started happening whenever I was about 19, 20 years old.
I was driving home, one day with my nephew, and I went through an intersection.
It was the last thing I remember.
I woke up in the hospital, later on.
I hit a phone poll doing 40 miles an hour with my nephew in the car with me.
And it's a good thing he was in, you know, a car seat and he was buckled up.
But they're not sure what causes my epilepsy, and we haven't been able to find a medication yet that controls it properly.
So my husband drives me everywhere.
Oh, that must be real tough for him.
We live about 12 miles away, so he's doing four trips a day.
So it is kind of hard on gas.
Megan is obviously a very strong woman.
Really impressive in a lot of different ways.
She'd taken ownership of the store and she was passionate about wanting that store to look great.
Hey, would you guys like some coupons? - Buy two candles, get two free? - Okay.
Today, I'm gonna be working as a second assistant sales manager in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
I'm looking for Dan.
Oh, he's right back in that room there.
Oh, great, thanks.
There's a lot of turnover in retail.
And it's really important to me that we've got the best people working in those jobs.
So I'm excited to see if we're getting the right folks into the right positions.
- Are you Dan? - I'm Dan.
- Are you my trainee? - I'm I'm Dan.
- Oh, this is weird.
- It's a great name you got.
All right, so I'm the second assistant manager here.
My job, basically, is just making sure everything's going fine, you know, customer complaints just kind of running the show.
Today, we need to set up a new display.
- Ready to get started? - Should I put on my apron? You should definitely put on your apron.
Good.
We have these things called "planograms" is the name for 'em.
It's just a bunch of pictures of how the display should be.
- Okay.
- It's easy to grasp.
Corporate has said, "here's what the display should look like.
" We're going to be setting that display up there.
But then where the rubber meets the road here, is when that team in the store actually has to bring that to life.
On the planogram I gave you, there's gift bags and gift boxes, which we haven't actually gotten in yet.
- Oh, no.
- So what you need to do is improvise it, and put whatever you think looks good.
You have about a half hour to do this.
Yeah, it takes, you know, 10, 20 minutes, but you'll have to get the hang of things a little bit.
So Six inch these big guys.
Sorry about that.
I was in a rush, and I was trying to be as careful as possible.
So this looks like this kind of goes here.
Dan didn't have a good sense of urgency.
He could have worked a lot faster.
That was a problem.
- So you are over time.
- Okay.
You can see, comparing the picture to the display, it's not 100% perfect.
Like that that looks a lot emptier - than it does on the picture.
- Right.
- But it'll have to do.
- Okay, well, thanks.
Thanks for cutting me some slack with this.
It'll look even better once we get the bags in.
It was interesting, 'cause when she sort of said "hey, get this," I was looking back.
It's like, "do you have all the stuff to make the display?" Sometimes we don't.
Today was a big surprise.
It really is critically important that the right stuff is in the store to build the displays with.
Like, when stuff like that happens, you sort of have to make the best of it.
We need to get that inventory into the stores and do it quickly.
That's gonna be one of the key things I want to go back and talk to the team about.
Um, so this is my favorite part - is selling to people.
- Okay.
How are you, today? I see you're going all all seasons in.
Dan brings a whole new approach to selling Yankee candles, that's for sure.
I will see you back with your coupons.
- Yes.
- Does it sound like a plan? Have a yankee-candle-rific day.
- You're doing it.
- He's a little quirky, um, but he's got a heart of gold.
So, for lunch today, we'll be doing the Dan special.
Cool.
I don't think I've had a microwave sandwich in a while.
It's time to live it up, today.
Yeah.
Look at look, this is so nice.
And during the summer, kids come with their parents.
I can see why.
Have you got brothers and sisters? I have two older brothers who have moved out of the house, you know.
And right now, at the house, it's me, my mom, and my little sister.
Is your dad, uh he, um, he passed away last June.
- Ugh.
- Um I am so sorry to hear that.
Yeah, he, um, had kidney failure.
It got really depressing the last few months.
It kind of, like, kicked me into gear, like, just seeing that.
Like, being, like, you know, my mom needs me.
She totally needed you.
Oh, God.
- Yeah.
- That's very, very hard.
He was the best dad ever.
You know, if I could be anything like he is, - I that's all I want, you know.
- Yeah.
I know the feeling, in terms of trying to be like your dad.
- That's hard to do.
- And, and, like, I need to help my mom and sister, you know.
I need to be there for them, you know.
But, you know, the next few years, while I'm in college, it's just going to class then coming to work afterwards, you know, like, when do I study? He'd be so proud of you.
He would be so proud of you.
I mean, he really would.
And I totally get how tough that must be.
Yeah.
I can't imagine losing your father.
I feel incredibly lucky that my dad is as healthy as he is.
Listening to today's story will probably mean I'll give him a call.
Well, thanks for the sandwich.
Anytime to anyone with my name.
- It's a Dan thing.
- Yep, it is a Dan thing.
I'm feeling pretty, um, pretty different now that this is drawing to an end.
So I've snuck into our fitness center.
I find that helps me organize my thoughts.
I came into this wanting to only see how our company was doing.
And what I really found out was I'm not as nervous about what it is that I'm doing, as I was at the start of this, because watching how some young people have dealt with adversity, listening to the losses that they had, of parents in their lives, I'm not sure I, personally, would have been able to handle it as well as they have.
I walk away from this feeling incredibly blessed.
Without my dad's help, I never would have gotten to where I am.
But I need to get myself ready for a big conversation that I need to have.
And it's gonna be difficult.
And somebody's definitely not going to be happy.
While the life stories of our employees are amazing, I also had the opportunity to learn a tremendous amount about our company.
No more soul patch.
Today, all of our employees have been called to our flagship store here at our headquarters in Massachusetts.
The employees believe that they have the opportunity to weigh in on whether they think that I should stay as a chef or be given a second chance to pursue a new career.
Um, to be honest, I don't know whether or not he deserves a second chance.
Hey, Harlan.
- You're Harlan Kent.
- Have you met me before? I have not met you, but you have your CEO blog I read.
Okay, so you probably don't know, - but I'm Dan Johnson.
- Dan.
- I'm "the man" Dan.
- Oh, my gosh.
I had you scrubbing our toilets.
I did scrub your toilets.
I did.
Oh, my gosh.
Blaze, imagine meeting you here.
So, I was curious to catch up with you.
As you can imagine, Blaze, using inappropriate language, especially in a place where you're trying to create a great atmosphere that's just the wrong time, wrong place.
You're gonna want to strangle and slap the kid.
Actually, other than the situation at hand, I never use inappropriate language.
Yeah, just drop it from your everyday use.
'Cause my sense was that this was not something that you were interested in from a career perspective.
Not really.
It's a paycheck.
It's not, so much, the job in general.
It's, you know, it's hard to act like a real human when you need to make sure that your emotions from home don't show through.
Is everything okay at home with you? That's a tough question.
I mean, my dad's definitely gone through some very tough times, but he's turned his life around.
Getting over alcohol and drug addition a very rough past.
And was that going on when you were growing up, then? Yeah.
I didn't realize quite how difficult a hand you've been dealt.
That's tough to get through.
It's not like you can change it, so you just got to work through it and figure out what to do to make yourself happy.
Have you got a role model or somebody who can help you with career advice, school advice, things like that? I just have, you know, advisors at school.
I don't feel the comfortableness talking to 'em and asking 'em questions.
And that's hard.
I mean, if you want to you don't have to do this just 'cause I'm the CEO I'm offering this as a person who's had the opportunity to see a bunch of different things, and would be more than happy to share some of the lessons that I've learned through that.
And I'd love to spend some time with you.
Definitely.
I've never had someone be like, "I really want to help you.
" I'm just trying to figure out a way to help you do something where you're psyched about doing it.
Yeah, that'd be great.
He was genuinely wanting to help me figure out what jobs I can do that'll make me, you know, excited to go to work, rather than waking up and saying, "oh, no, I have to go to Yankee Candle today.
" Jose, it was really impressive working with you.
You were talking about the customers the customer want this, the customer want that.
Those are things that are super important to me.
I want to say thanks, 'cause obviously you were listening when folks were talking about how important that stuff was.
There was one thing that we talked about that definitely was a little unsettling to me.
It's the kiss-ups in the organization that get ahead.
I definitely feel like that definitely.
In terms of who gets promoted and who doesn't, it isn't about the who you know, it should be about what kind of a job you can do.
And, as I said, you've got tremendous skills.
I'd love it if you could bring some of that passion and some of that teaching to other folks in the plant.
If you wouldn't mind, that would be great.
'Cause what I see you as having potential for is leading a team in some way.
I'd love that opportunity.
That would be great.
So one of the other things is, is you coming from a real tough family situation, um, one of the things I'd like to do is also give you $5,000 to use it however you like.
That's awesome.
I definitely appreciate that.
- That's awesome.
- $5,000 is for you.
What I'd like to do is make a $10,000 investment - in your gym.
- $10,000.
I know it's just getting off the ground, but I think it's a really good cause, and I think it's gonna have a big impact.
Man, those guys are gonna love that.
I want to go to the gym at some point.
Definitely welcome any time.
So if you could work Yankee Candle, somehow, into the gym name like "Team Yankee Ravenous" you know, that would be great.
I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
That's great, that's awesome.
Thanks very much.
I really appreciate it.
Life was kind of hard for me, but, man, definitely got hit with a royal flush today.
- Thank you.
Thanks for everything.
- Take care.
Life for me is definitely gonna be different after today.
You know, like, hopefully, I can help people the same way one day, so Megan, you and I both share a passion for the stores and how they look.
And it was music to my ears when you were saying how much it hurt you with the front of the store not looking perfect.
So we're gonna renovate your store.
Yay! Oh, my gosh.
The front of the store's gonna look so pretty now.
What I'd also like to give you is an all-expense-paid trip for you and your family.
Are you for real? Oh, my goodness.
The other thing I want to do is, I actually sit on the board of directors of two different hospitals.
And I would be happy to use some of those connections that I've got, in terms of helping with your epilepsy.
Anything that has the chance of helping me with this, so I might be able to return back to, at some point, a normal life? Yes, I am totally open to that.
Totally.
And I know it's incredibly expensive.
And, you know, what I would be happy to do is provide for you $20,000 worth of medical expenses and see if somebody's got some new way to help you with it.
Thank you so much.
I've never had anything like that ever happen before.
You're a good person.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I try not to cry when I get happy about something, but I've never had anybody be that generous before.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
I I think he needs a little set of angel wings and a halo.
He's like a guardian angel.
I hear about treatments all the time, but I know that I can't afford them.
It's wonderful.
I don't know what else to say.
It's wonderful.
This is probably a little on the overwhelming side? Uh, pretty much everything, yeah.
Dan, you're a very nice, friendly guy.
But, more importantly, you're passionate, and that really came across.
I have a passion for fragrance.
You do.
So I thought that was great.
Thank you so much.
Dan, I heard real clearly how tough the passing of your father has been.
Your positive attitude, Dan, is remarkable.
And it's the way my dad was, you know.
I can assure you that your dad would be incredibly proud of you.
I I try.
I know it's raw for you, and tough for you, personally.
And that also can put a huge financial burden on a family.
Yeah.
So what I'd like to do is give you $15,000.
To help your family, and to help take care of them.
Wow.
I mean, what you're doing for my family, I can never communicate how thankful I will be forever.
Incredible.
You've got a lot of financial challenges.
Um, you're trying to figure out how to pay for school.
What I'd like to do is, is I'd like to give you $10,000 okay? to help you reduce your student loans.
I think you're doing a really great job here.
Thank you so much.
You know, there's nothing more I want than for my dad to see me, right now, see everything that's happening.
I want to give you a hug.
But, you know, I know that he was proud of me at least.
I certainly have been inspired by the life stories of our employees.
And I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to reach out to my dad and spend some time catching up with him, as well as talking about how much I appreciate him.
Dad, do you remember when I was telling you I was on my way to interview at Yankee Candle and you were telling me, why would I Yeah.
be going to a candle company of all things? I remember very well.
Now that I obviously know a great deal more about the candle business than I ever did know, I can imagine that that was a very wise decision on your part.
I'm feeling really lucky.
I've got the greatest job there is.
Things worked out really well, and I'm really lucky to be here.
I'm eternally grateful for the time that you spent with giving me the lessons and, more importantly, the sacrifices you guys made.
Living up to your and mom's expectations of me has always been one of the most important things to me.
Well, mom and I are as proud of you as we could possibly be.
- I'm Dan.
- You're the guy, huh? I'm the guy.
Should I put on my apron? Definitely put on your apron.
Cool.
By working on the front lines, this high-powered perfectionist will see what it's really like to burn the candle at both ends.
Sorry about that.
Time to make the candles.
- Oh, man.
- That's the last thing we need, is customers to get hurt smashed jars.
The biggest pain, you know, kids are gonna get messy.
But what will happen when he learns that not all of his employees share the same enthusiasm for their jobs as he does? They'll dip it a million times.
Leave you a mess like this.
Sometimes, I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 3x08 - Yankee Candle (March 30, 2012) Hello, welcome to Yankee Candle.
Headquartered in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, Yankee Candle Company is the largest candle manufacturer in the world, making more than 200 million candles a year and producing $730 million in annual revenue.
Overseeing the 6,400 employees that keep this business burning, is one man.
I'm Harlan Kent, president and CEO of Yankee Candle.
Yankee Candle started in 1969, by Mike Kittredge.
Mike was about 16 at the time.
Didn't have enough money for a Christmas present for his mother.
he realized he had something, and the rest is history.
Today we have about 550 stores.
Our sales last year were $730 million.
And our plan is just to build the business to over a billion dollars.
You think of candles as just something that you have to decorate your home.
It's much more than that.
I think that we're really in creating-emotions business is really what Yankee's all about.
I believe fragrance is a trigger that then brings you back to wonderful moments in your past.
People have true connections to our candles.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
We evaluate over 2,000 new fragrances a year.
The first fragrance is holiday berries.
Okay.
There's a lot of science that goes into candles.
You can't just add fragrance to a candle and then it's gonna smell okay.
It's how that fragrance works with the wax, once you add a wick to that, how that changes the whole fragrance experience.
I'm getting a lot of the earthy notes, are you? Yeah, I love it.
Makes me think of staying in a nice hotel.
Oh, yeah.
Those are things, you know, that I take very seriously.
I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, with my parents and my sister.
It was certainly an affluent town.
I went to High School at Phillips Exeter Academy, then Dartmouth College.
My parents thought that it was incredibly important that my sister and I really work hard in school.
And you certainly felt pressure.
You always really cared what your parents thought of you.
So you always were trying to live up to their expectations, and, um, I was always trying to impress my dad.
I definitely didn't see eye to eye with my dad always.
When I was a kid, he thought it would be interesting to get a pilot's license.
So he used to take us up in the planes and practice stalls and do all sorts of crazy things like that.
He's fearless.
And he was very comfortable living by the seat of his pants.
And I'm less of a risk taker than he is.
When I was gonna interview for Yankee Candle, I called my dad.
And he said, "that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.
" "Nobody's burning candles on the dinner table anymore.
" And I said, "dad, these aren't those kind of candles.
" "These are, like, fragrance candles.
" And he goes, "well, I don't know what those are," "but that sounds like a horrible business.
" You know, he said his piece, and then he left it up to me.
I don't want to fail at things and I don't want to let my dad down.
Every day, I worry about that.
I've been CEO for two years now.
This is my first chance to be a CEO.
I'm constantly worrying.
Are we doing all the right stuff? What could go wrong? One misstep could destroy your brand if you don't do it the right way.
There's a lot of pressure.
You don't spend a lot of time sleeping.
Oh, nice catch.
I'm incredibly lucky.
I have a great wife, and we've got three kids.
- What kind of defense is that? - Too fast.
Things have worked out really well for me, personally.
Oh, they're looking good.
Yup.
Always been a foodie.
I went to cooking school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
So, Harlan, are you nervous about what you're about to go through? I'm incredibly nervous.
Harlan is very hard on himself.
- He's a perfectionist.
- Perfect just like a fancy Italian restaurant.
He sets very high goals for himself and his company, and he works really hard to make those goals happen.
All right, guys, let's eat.
- Oh, man, that smells good.
- Mm-hmm.
I'm definitely going undercover to help us be the kind of company that I think we can be, and that's a billion-dollar candle company.
It would break my heart if I walk into a store and our associates are rude or not approachable.
I want to see, firsthand, are we really bringing that emotion, in terms of how we're making our products and how we're selling our products in our stores.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Dan Johnson, a chef from Cincinnati, Ohio.
My coworkers will be told that I am a contestant on a reality TV show called Second Chances, where I'm given a second chance at starting a new line of work.
Hey, Patty, Jack.
Yeah? I have to tell you, you look a lot younger.
Hey, don't be touching my soul patch.
See you, guys.
Bye, dad.
Today, I am in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, at our flagship store.
This is the most important store, in terms of setting the tone, for the Yankee Candle brand.
This is a great store for families.
We've got the husband and wife there's a lot of great products for them.
But there's also great things for kids.
We've got make-your-own-candle stations, we've got wax hand station.
What I'm interested in seeing here is there a real focus on customer service? Are people having fun and are they feeling good? Because when people are feeling good, then they buy stuff.
I'm looking for Blaze.
We need to make this retail-tainment.
Are you Blaze? - Yes.
- I'm Dan.
- Nice to meet you, Dan.
- Hey, how are you? - Good, how are you? - This is such a big place, it took me a little bit of time to get around here.
Understandable, understandable.
So I'm gonna be training with you today? - Yes.
- Cool.
We're gonna do a few different things.
We're gonna do a wax hand, which is just make a cast of your hand out of wax.
It's definitely popular.
We're gonna do "dip your own candle," which you take the different colors, put them over the wax kids really love it.
Great.
You're just taking uncolored wax and you're dipping it in vats of colored wax.
Guest comes up you have the chart, and the instructions to make a rainbow.
Over here, the biggest pain is just, you know, kids are gonna get messy.
Hi, how are you? You want to make a candle today? - What's your name? - Taylor.
Taylor? All right.
Done this before? Yeah? A professional? - Very nice.
- Here? Okay.
Oh, is that a Christmas tree? - Oh, that's so pretty.
- Nice.
Where are you guys from? - Just north of Greenfield.
- Okay.
- Is that it? - Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Absolutely, have a great day.
Those people were incredibly nice.
They're not all gonna be like that.
A lot of the times, you know, they'll come up.
Little kid they'll just kind of want to make a mess, do whatever.
That's a pain.
Give me just a second, I'm gonna be that hellish child.
They're gonna come up Oh, my God.
"I dropped it.
Can I get another?" "Well, no, you definitely dropped that in there," "'cause, you know, [.]
.
" And there has been instances where you're gonna want to strangle and slap the kid.
Oh, my To be completely honest with you, I have the worst temper.
Can't stand in line at a supermarket without getting pissed off at the guy in front of me for talking on the cell phone.
As much as, you know, you hate your boss, hate that woman you're working with, with the really high, screechy, annoying voice, you got to keep that Yankee Candle big smile.
That's pretty much the biggest part of the whole job is just making sure that you look happy as much as you hate whoever you're working with.
He's angry about some things.
I'm not sure what exactly it is that's making him angry.
But that's not great for all the rest of the team who does think that it's a great place to work.
They'll dip it a million times leave you a mess like this.
As bad as this comes across, sometimes I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
All right, come on.
We're gonna do some wax hands.
That'd be great.
Basically what happens is we go back and forth between wax and water, a bunch of times, on your hand.
And we make a cast of your hand, like this.
Bring it home, put it on the mantel whatever you want.
Come around this side.
It'll be easier.
Let's get this started.
Right down there.
Right up onto your wrist.
Whoa, that's cold.
Phew! - That is freezing in here.
- Yeah, take your hand out.
You're just gonna shake it off just a little bit.
Just kind of scarecrow the elbow.
This hand relaxing go into the wax.
Take it out.
- Find all the imperfections.
- Smooth it.
Okay.
Just takes a little bit of practice.
Then you just have them figure out whatever color they want.
And it's just like you're putting their hand in this one.
The only difference is It's colored.
So, you know, they get kind of nervous they don't see what it is.
See where it's going.
Just kind of explain how it's the exact same thing, exact same temperature.
It's a lot cooler, 'cause it comes out a color.
- It's the hulk.
- Absolutely.
So cool.
It's a weird situation to throw yourself into throwing people's hands in wax, that you've never met before.
- Okay.
- Keep that there.
It's odd.
You want to tug it just a little bit.
Big knuckles.
It's my big knuckles.
No, it happens all the time.
Wouldn't say I'm a specialist yet, but, uh, usually it would come out pretty and wonderful, and you'd have a hand.
But that's basically the whole process.
- Cool, okay.
- Want to give it a try? Yeah, sure.
Have some fun.
I'll be around, all right? All right.
Who's getting their hands done? It's a really awkward, time-consuming process as it is.
It's quite chilly.
So he's gonna suck at this.
You guys have got great hands.
These are some of the nicest I've worked with.
Jake, what do you think? How's this looking? - They looking okay? - Yeah.
Oh, perfect.
Oh, you're doing great.
That was the hard part.
So let's turn your wrist over this way.
There we go.
Look at that! - Yay.
- Isn't that amazing? - That is cool.
- Okay.
Okay, come on in.
He already looks like he knows what to do.
When this thing stands up, you can put this on your mantel.
That came out perfect.
I can't put my finger on what's going on You actually turned out to have the perfect-sized hand.
But things just don't seem to be fitting together naturally.
He seems too good at the situation.
- Want to go take a five? - Sure, that'd be great.
- Come on, man.
Wow, that standing up gets tiring after a while.
Yeah, right? So how long have you been doing this? - Two years.
- Okay.
What about you? What's going on with you? Had a restaurant, but, um, - ended up having to close it.
- That's rough.
Just looking at some other ideas.
I mean, you're you're good at this, man.
He was in the restaurant business.
I don't know about anybody else, but when I go to get a steak, not too often is the guy like, "hey, you want a wax hand with that?" I mean, you seem unnaturally comfortable - doing the stuff here - Hey, look to the extent that I I can't shake it, like you've done this before.
Kind of driving myself insane in the fact that I want to ask him about it, 'cause he does seem familiar - Well, yeah.
- Get back? - Yeah, I guess.
- Let's go.
But at the same time, I don't want to come out and be like, "you're #$&* me, aren't you?" All right, let's go see if they need our help.
Oh, all orange.
Nice.
Harlan Kent, CEO of Yankee Candle, is a boss undercover in his own company.
Got a weird feeling about this.
But maybe not for long.
Seems like he's really good at doing this.
He just doesn't look natural.
He's really suspicious.
I don't like deceiving him.
I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I just say, "here's who I am.
" Hey, Blaze.
- How'd it go, man? - Oh, it's good.
I want to talk to you straight, for a second.
So my guess is, uh, you have some ideas that I probably might not be a chef - who's come here from Cincinnati.
- Maybe a little.
Is that kind of the way it was going? - Yeah.
- So, uh so my name is Harlan Kent.
I assumed it was you, Mr.
Kent.
You don't need to call me "mister.
" I'm not that old.
But, um, when I listen as Harlan Kent, I hear certain things.
When I listen as Joe Schmoe, I hear a lot more real things, in terms of what's going on.
It sounds like you've got stuff that isn't working here.
I just told the CEO that sometimes I feel like punching an eight-year-old.
That's kind of like, okay, well, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I came to work.
If you're not even thinking, "hey, this is great," or "there's stuff that could be better here" I'd love to spend some time with you, um, just catching up afterwards.
This is a job where you need to be passionate about it, or it's probably not necessarily the best place for you.
Now is not the time and place to have a conversation with Blaze, but I'm gonna need to talk with him some more.
Because I need to get a lot more information before I can make an informed decision here.
You don't know me well enough, but I really care about this stuff, like, you have no idea.
- So have a good night.
- You too, man.
I'll talk to you soon.
Today, I'm at our plant in Whately, Massachusetts, and I'm gonna be working on the line.
This is our only plant at Yankee Candle, so this is where 100% of our candles are produced over 200 million candles a year.
The candles made here will wind up in stores throughout the United States.
We also export all over the world.
I'm looking for Jose.
Okay.
What I really want to see is, are we passionate about quality, in terms of how we're making the product here? And after getting discovered by Blaze yesterday, I'm really hoping my disguise holds up.
Excuse me, are you Jose? Yes.
How are you doing? - You're the guy? - I'm Dan.
How are you? - You're the guy, huh? - I'm the guy.
Finally here to do your thing, brother.
- I am, I am.
- We're gonna be packing here.
We're working on the end of line seven.
We will pack the jars that will come to us in the end.
- So first, here, right here.
- Good to go? Yeah.
You're gonna be taking a quick look at labels.
Sometimes they might be a little off-center, but that's all right.
But if it's way too off-center, just got to put it aside, upside down.
And then you can give it to the label operator in a little bit.
Things that don't look right? That's a big deal here? Oh, just put yourself in a customer's shoe.
What if, like, you bought this candle and you get it like this.
I mean, you're kind of gonna ask yourself, "well, I'm paying $14.
99 for this candle.
" "I want it to be good.
" Yep, that sounds good.
Go ahead.
Please give it a shot.
- Okay, so I've got - Pull it right there, yep.
You just throw it right in there, yep.
All right, in here.
Make sure there's six in there.
Oh, you got to be careful there.
Now, if that ever happens Check to see if I make sure that you see if there's a crack in it.
'Cause if you cracked and you send it, - that's a cracked candle.
- Jose was all over quality.
Right from the get-go, everything was about quality.
That's the last thing we need is customers to get hurt - smashed, charged.
- I want no cheaters.
I'm feeling good about that.
So how many of these can you do? - 8,000? - Yes.
So I'm gonna leave you alone for a minute.
I'll come back and check on you.
I'll do my best.
Oh, man.
The speed and pace of all this stuff is really fast.
So lids were falling off left and right, I couldn't make the boxes fast enough, I was way backed up, so this has been a little tricky for me.
Okay.
You're killing me, here, just killing me.
Dan is definitely letting the jars pile up too much.
I mean, you've got to stay focused here.
You've got a disaster here.
I'm gonna help you out a little bit here, Dan.
Try to we're gonna get caught up here.
I am letting you down, bud, I'm sorry.
I think Dan came in here with a little bit of cockiness, but it kind of humbled him instantly when the jars started piling up.
Some people come in and think it is gonna be easy for them.
I did not think this was gonna be easy.
So what do you like about working here? To be honest with you, man, I think sometimes it's hard in a big company like this, I think it's kind of hard to move up.
- Yes.
- I think it's kind of hard to move up, because I'm not a kiss-ass.
I've kind of seen a lot where guys were pretty good at kissing ass and moved up in life, in this company.
- Playing the politician game.
- Is there a lot of politics? Oh, lots of politics, my friend.
I think it takes a lot of ammunition out of people.
When they feel that way, they won't work as hard.
That's not a good thing at all.
You got to put 100% into it.
You got to put 100% into it.
That's what life is, man.
I mean, no one's gonna do it for you, man.
I would never take what I've been through in my life, I wouldn't trade it.
My dad was a heroin addict.
He died at a young age.
I was 16 he died, in 1985, of AIDS.
He ended up catching AIDS from shooting needles.
I have actually witnessed him shooting needles.
with seeing him die slowly.
My mom was very heavy into selling drugs.
You know, can you imagine me being a freshman in high school? I'd get home from school, I want to pour a bowl of cereal, ATF breaks right into the doors front and back boom.
What are you gonna do with that? So who raised you then? The streets.
The streets raised me.
When I was 16, I was really fortunate I was in boarding school, I was focused on my schoolwork.
I wasn't trying to survive.
These guys are fully masked, and AK-47s in the backyard.
I'm a kid, man.
Imagine what that would do to my mind.
Jose hasn't had a whole lot of positive role models in his life.
I feel incredibly lucky that I had my parents and that I have my dad.
I've been given a tremendous amount.
I'm a really lucky person.
I think struggles teach you how to just deal with life, man.
- In Lowell, Mass.
- Yeah.
Me and two partners of mine I was a former professional fighter we have just recently opened up a mixed martial arts gym in Greenfield, about a month ago.
We got a few students working out.
Hey, maybe, if you're interested, after this, we could probably head down there.
I could give you a nice little workout see if you got that mental toughness.
I would like to try that.
I'd probably think that was very cool.
So they don't give you grief when you walk into the gym smelling like frosted cinnamon? Can't be an animal all the time, right? I guess.
- This is the end of the run.
- Okay.
Got to say, Dan, you handled that pretty good.
Thank you for saying that.
- Send this through.
- Okay.
You tell the gentleman this is the end of the run.
After you, my friend.
- This is it.
- This is incredibly cool.
Team Ravenous in action.
You should have seen this place when we first looked at it.
It was nothing but dirt, dead rats in the corner.
Good band of brothers, right here, man.
I mean, this is we don't need something really fancy.
What for? I mean, we're fighters.
This is gritty.
Where'd you get the money for that? We actually had a couple fundraiser parties, - that we had last summer.
- Cool.
And we had a bunch of people come in with raffle tickets - And that's how you bought - The mats.
How we bought bags, but, um, I'm just glad to have this, though.
Because if I can see a kid going the wrong way, I can introduce him to this, and I just know he's gonna love it.
Today was fabulous for me.
I mean, Jose is a tremendous person.
These guys it's all about hard work and relying on yourself.
And I genuinely feel honored and feel really lucky that a guy who's as much of a stand-up, quality guy like that is working at Yankee Candle.
Coming up We've got about 24 minutes to open.
Harlan gets up close and personal with the dirty details of retail.
- How're we doing? - Good.
Today, I'm in Peachtree City, Georgia.
I'll be working with one of our store managers.
The Georgia market is a more difficult market for us.
And this store, in particular, is not doing as great as we would like.
So I'm not sure what all is going on here.
I'm interested in finding out what's impacting this store's performance.
- Hi, how are you? - I'm Dan.
Nice to meet you, Dan.
I'm Megan.
- Come on in.
- Hi, Megan.
It smells great in here.
So we need to get the floor vacuumed and make sure that everything looks good.
You're gonna want to push it up, like that, so it'll roll.
You want to make sure to get everything around the front, 'cause our guests, when they first come in, that's your only chance you have to make that best impression.
It's on the side.
Retail is details.
And it's the little things.
I'd like to make sure that the experience that our customer has is perfect every single time.
Our day started off slow.
I think Dan's doing good.
He does need to move a little faster though.
We might also want to grab a broom, 'cause we can see all these cobwebs up front here.
We're gonna get the insides of the big windows also.
Okay.
But go ahead and get all that swept out.
- I will, all right.
- Mm-hmm.
- Is this an old store? - It is.
This store is over ten years old.
You know, it's been around for quite a while.
I had a gentleman in my store, the other day from corporate, and I was trying to explain how, when you're walking up on our store, the first thing you see is the cracks and the splits in the wood.
But it didn't seem that didn't seem like it wanted to be listened to.
How the store looks is important.
I'm a type "A" guy, and this is really, really tough.
It kills us, not to have absolutely spotless, spanking clean stores.
And I want to work really, really hard to figure out how to get that fixed.
Let's take that on back to the bathroom, - 'cause you're gonna need it.
- All right, I'm on it.
There is no job that is too low for anybody at Yankee Candle to be doing.
How are you ladies doing today? - Good, how are you? - Doing good.
It's the job of everyone to make that store look perfect.
Smells like real apple cider, doesn't it? It's already taken him a little bit longer than it should.
And that's extra time that he could be putting towards another task.
How're we doing? - Good.
Not bad.
- Looking good.
You got it nice and spiffy.
All right.
We're gonna go ahead and get on one of the shelves.
We're gonna get it cleaned and straightened.
And you're gonna need to remember everything you see, 'cause you need to make sure that you set it back exactly the way you see it.
You don't want a customer pulling for a jar and having a big, old dust bunny on the end of it, come out in their face.
That's really not gonna make 'em want to buy anything, - so, yes.
- I don't know what a dust bunny is, but that sounds bad.
Okay.
Look at the shelves that are around it.
Do you notice anything different between those shelves and your shelves? There's a lot of space in them.
- That's right.
- That's a problem.
Yup.
That's what I was thinking about the space.
I was going, "why do I have so much space?" Now, I know.
Gives you the ability to house another six jars and keep those out of the back room.
Everything's pulled forward to the front? - Yep.
- Okay.
So we want to get the customers to come into the store.
So it's always good to entice them with coupons.
And don't be discouraged if somebody tells you no.
- Okay.
Hi, how are you? - How are you, today? Would you like a coupon for Yankee Candle today? - I'm good.
- Okay.
See? It's okay.
Don't get your feelings hurt.
It's all right.
All right, let's walk up this way and see if we can drum up a few more customers.
- Where are you originally from? - Cincinnati.
But, um, it's been a tough economy.
I can definitely feel you on that one.
My husband and I, we owned a tattoo studio.
People started cutting back.
Tattooing was a big one.
Not only that, but I have epilepsy, so I can't drive.
Really.
Have you always had it? - Ever since you were a kid? - No.
Um, it started happening whenever I was about 19, 20 years old.
I was driving home, one day with my nephew, and I went through an intersection.
It was the last thing I remember.
I woke up in the hospital, later on.
I hit a phone poll doing 40 miles an hour with my nephew in the car with me.
And it's a good thing he was in, you know, a car seat and he was buckled up.
But they're not sure what causes my epilepsy, and we haven't been able to find a medication yet that controls it properly.
So my husband drives me everywhere.
Oh, that must be real tough for him.
We live about 12 miles away, so he's doing four trips a day.
So it is kind of hard on gas.
Megan is obviously a very strong woman.
Really impressive in a lot of different ways.
She'd taken ownership of the store and she was passionate about wanting that store to look great.
Hey, would you guys like some coupons? - Buy two candles, get two free? - Okay.
Today, I'm gonna be working as a second assistant sales manager in Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
I'm looking for Dan.
Oh, he's right back in that room there.
Oh, great, thanks.
There's a lot of turnover in retail.
And it's really important to me that we've got the best people working in those jobs.
So I'm excited to see if we're getting the right folks into the right positions.
- Are you Dan? - I'm Dan.
- Are you my trainee? - I'm I'm Dan.
- Oh, this is weird.
- It's a great name you got.
All right, so I'm the second assistant manager here.
My job, basically, is just making sure everything's going fine, you know, customer complaints just kind of running the show.
Today, we need to set up a new display.
- Ready to get started? - Should I put on my apron? You should definitely put on your apron.
Good.
We have these things called "planograms" is the name for 'em.
It's just a bunch of pictures of how the display should be.
- Okay.
- It's easy to grasp.
Corporate has said, "here's what the display should look like.
" We're going to be setting that display up there.
But then where the rubber meets the road here, is when that team in the store actually has to bring that to life.
On the planogram I gave you, there's gift bags and gift boxes, which we haven't actually gotten in yet.
- Oh, no.
- So what you need to do is improvise it, and put whatever you think looks good.
You have about a half hour to do this.
Yeah, it takes, you know, 10, 20 minutes, but you'll have to get the hang of things a little bit.
So Six inch these big guys.
Sorry about that.
I was in a rush, and I was trying to be as careful as possible.
So this looks like this kind of goes here.
Dan didn't have a good sense of urgency.
He could have worked a lot faster.
That was a problem.
- So you are over time.
- Okay.
You can see, comparing the picture to the display, it's not 100% perfect.
Like that that looks a lot emptier - than it does on the picture.
- Right.
- But it'll have to do.
- Okay, well, thanks.
Thanks for cutting me some slack with this.
It'll look even better once we get the bags in.
It was interesting, 'cause when she sort of said "hey, get this," I was looking back.
It's like, "do you have all the stuff to make the display?" Sometimes we don't.
Today was a big surprise.
It really is critically important that the right stuff is in the store to build the displays with.
Like, when stuff like that happens, you sort of have to make the best of it.
We need to get that inventory into the stores and do it quickly.
That's gonna be one of the key things I want to go back and talk to the team about.
Um, so this is my favorite part - is selling to people.
- Okay.
How are you, today? I see you're going all all seasons in.
Dan brings a whole new approach to selling Yankee candles, that's for sure.
I will see you back with your coupons.
- Yes.
- Does it sound like a plan? Have a yankee-candle-rific day.
- You're doing it.
- He's a little quirky, um, but he's got a heart of gold.
So, for lunch today, we'll be doing the Dan special.
Cool.
I don't think I've had a microwave sandwich in a while.
It's time to live it up, today.
Yeah.
Look at look, this is so nice.
And during the summer, kids come with their parents.
I can see why.
Have you got brothers and sisters? I have two older brothers who have moved out of the house, you know.
And right now, at the house, it's me, my mom, and my little sister.
Is your dad, uh he, um, he passed away last June.
- Ugh.
- Um I am so sorry to hear that.
Yeah, he, um, had kidney failure.
It got really depressing the last few months.
It kind of, like, kicked me into gear, like, just seeing that.
Like, being, like, you know, my mom needs me.
She totally needed you.
Oh, God.
- Yeah.
- That's very, very hard.
He was the best dad ever.
You know, if I could be anything like he is, - I that's all I want, you know.
- Yeah.
I know the feeling, in terms of trying to be like your dad.
- That's hard to do.
- And, and, like, I need to help my mom and sister, you know.
I need to be there for them, you know.
But, you know, the next few years, while I'm in college, it's just going to class then coming to work afterwards, you know, like, when do I study? He'd be so proud of you.
He would be so proud of you.
I mean, he really would.
And I totally get how tough that must be.
Yeah.
I can't imagine losing your father.
I feel incredibly lucky that my dad is as healthy as he is.
Listening to today's story will probably mean I'll give him a call.
Well, thanks for the sandwich.
Anytime to anyone with my name.
- It's a Dan thing.
- Yep, it is a Dan thing.
I'm feeling pretty, um, pretty different now that this is drawing to an end.
So I've snuck into our fitness center.
I find that helps me organize my thoughts.
I came into this wanting to only see how our company was doing.
And what I really found out was I'm not as nervous about what it is that I'm doing, as I was at the start of this, because watching how some young people have dealt with adversity, listening to the losses that they had, of parents in their lives, I'm not sure I, personally, would have been able to handle it as well as they have.
I walk away from this feeling incredibly blessed.
Without my dad's help, I never would have gotten to where I am.
But I need to get myself ready for a big conversation that I need to have.
And it's gonna be difficult.
And somebody's definitely not going to be happy.
While the life stories of our employees are amazing, I also had the opportunity to learn a tremendous amount about our company.
No more soul patch.
Today, all of our employees have been called to our flagship store here at our headquarters in Massachusetts.
The employees believe that they have the opportunity to weigh in on whether they think that I should stay as a chef or be given a second chance to pursue a new career.
Um, to be honest, I don't know whether or not he deserves a second chance.
Hey, Harlan.
- You're Harlan Kent.
- Have you met me before? I have not met you, but you have your CEO blog I read.
Okay, so you probably don't know, - but I'm Dan Johnson.
- Dan.
- I'm "the man" Dan.
- Oh, my gosh.
I had you scrubbing our toilets.
I did scrub your toilets.
I did.
Oh, my gosh.
Blaze, imagine meeting you here.
So, I was curious to catch up with you.
As you can imagine, Blaze, using inappropriate language, especially in a place where you're trying to create a great atmosphere that's just the wrong time, wrong place.
You're gonna want to strangle and slap the kid.
Actually, other than the situation at hand, I never use inappropriate language.
Yeah, just drop it from your everyday use.
'Cause my sense was that this was not something that you were interested in from a career perspective.
Not really.
It's a paycheck.
It's not, so much, the job in general.
It's, you know, it's hard to act like a real human when you need to make sure that your emotions from home don't show through.
Is everything okay at home with you? That's a tough question.
I mean, my dad's definitely gone through some very tough times, but he's turned his life around.
Getting over alcohol and drug addition a very rough past.
And was that going on when you were growing up, then? Yeah.
I didn't realize quite how difficult a hand you've been dealt.
That's tough to get through.
It's not like you can change it, so you just got to work through it and figure out what to do to make yourself happy.
Have you got a role model or somebody who can help you with career advice, school advice, things like that? I just have, you know, advisors at school.
I don't feel the comfortableness talking to 'em and asking 'em questions.
And that's hard.
I mean, if you want to you don't have to do this just 'cause I'm the CEO I'm offering this as a person who's had the opportunity to see a bunch of different things, and would be more than happy to share some of the lessons that I've learned through that.
And I'd love to spend some time with you.
Definitely.
I've never had someone be like, "I really want to help you.
" I'm just trying to figure out a way to help you do something where you're psyched about doing it.
Yeah, that'd be great.
He was genuinely wanting to help me figure out what jobs I can do that'll make me, you know, excited to go to work, rather than waking up and saying, "oh, no, I have to go to Yankee Candle today.
" Jose, it was really impressive working with you.
You were talking about the customers the customer want this, the customer want that.
Those are things that are super important to me.
I want to say thanks, 'cause obviously you were listening when folks were talking about how important that stuff was.
There was one thing that we talked about that definitely was a little unsettling to me.
It's the kiss-ups in the organization that get ahead.
I definitely feel like that definitely.
In terms of who gets promoted and who doesn't, it isn't about the who you know, it should be about what kind of a job you can do.
And, as I said, you've got tremendous skills.
I'd love it if you could bring some of that passion and some of that teaching to other folks in the plant.
If you wouldn't mind, that would be great.
'Cause what I see you as having potential for is leading a team in some way.
I'd love that opportunity.
That would be great.
So one of the other things is, is you coming from a real tough family situation, um, one of the things I'd like to do is also give you $5,000 to use it however you like.
That's awesome.
I definitely appreciate that.
- That's awesome.
- $5,000 is for you.
What I'd like to do is make a $10,000 investment - in your gym.
- $10,000.
I know it's just getting off the ground, but I think it's a really good cause, and I think it's gonna have a big impact.
Man, those guys are gonna love that.
I want to go to the gym at some point.
Definitely welcome any time.
So if you could work Yankee Candle, somehow, into the gym name like "Team Yankee Ravenous" you know, that would be great.
I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
That's great, that's awesome.
Thanks very much.
I really appreciate it.
Life was kind of hard for me, but, man, definitely got hit with a royal flush today.
- Thank you.
Thanks for everything.
- Take care.
Life for me is definitely gonna be different after today.
You know, like, hopefully, I can help people the same way one day, so Megan, you and I both share a passion for the stores and how they look.
And it was music to my ears when you were saying how much it hurt you with the front of the store not looking perfect.
So we're gonna renovate your store.
Yay! Oh, my gosh.
The front of the store's gonna look so pretty now.
What I'd also like to give you is an all-expense-paid trip for you and your family.
Are you for real? Oh, my goodness.
The other thing I want to do is, I actually sit on the board of directors of two different hospitals.
And I would be happy to use some of those connections that I've got, in terms of helping with your epilepsy.
Anything that has the chance of helping me with this, so I might be able to return back to, at some point, a normal life? Yes, I am totally open to that.
Totally.
And I know it's incredibly expensive.
And, you know, what I would be happy to do is provide for you $20,000 worth of medical expenses and see if somebody's got some new way to help you with it.
Thank you so much.
I've never had anything like that ever happen before.
You're a good person.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I try not to cry when I get happy about something, but I've never had anybody be that generous before.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
I I think he needs a little set of angel wings and a halo.
He's like a guardian angel.
I hear about treatments all the time, but I know that I can't afford them.
It's wonderful.
I don't know what else to say.
It's wonderful.
This is probably a little on the overwhelming side? Uh, pretty much everything, yeah.
Dan, you're a very nice, friendly guy.
But, more importantly, you're passionate, and that really came across.
I have a passion for fragrance.
You do.
So I thought that was great.
Thank you so much.
Dan, I heard real clearly how tough the passing of your father has been.
Your positive attitude, Dan, is remarkable.
And it's the way my dad was, you know.
I can assure you that your dad would be incredibly proud of you.
I I try.
I know it's raw for you, and tough for you, personally.
And that also can put a huge financial burden on a family.
Yeah.
So what I'd like to do is give you $15,000.
To help your family, and to help take care of them.
Wow.
I mean, what you're doing for my family, I can never communicate how thankful I will be forever.
Incredible.
You've got a lot of financial challenges.
Um, you're trying to figure out how to pay for school.
What I'd like to do is, is I'd like to give you $10,000 okay? to help you reduce your student loans.
I think you're doing a really great job here.
Thank you so much.
You know, there's nothing more I want than for my dad to see me, right now, see everything that's happening.
I want to give you a hug.
But, you know, I know that he was proud of me at least.
I certainly have been inspired by the life stories of our employees.
And I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to reach out to my dad and spend some time catching up with him, as well as talking about how much I appreciate him.
Dad, do you remember when I was telling you I was on my way to interview at Yankee Candle and you were telling me, why would I Yeah.
be going to a candle company of all things? I remember very well.
Now that I obviously know a great deal more about the candle business than I ever did know, I can imagine that that was a very wise decision on your part.
I'm feeling really lucky.
I've got the greatest job there is.
Things worked out really well, and I'm really lucky to be here.
I'm eternally grateful for the time that you spent with giving me the lessons and, more importantly, the sacrifices you guys made.
Living up to your and mom's expectations of me has always been one of the most important things to me.
Well, mom and I are as proud of you as we could possibly be.