Cal Turner - discounting hall of fame award - SPARC Awards 1993: Supplier Performance Awards by Retail Category

Discount Store News, Sept 19, 1994 by Richard Halverson

Cal Turner, founder of Dollar General and newest member of the Discounting Hall of Fame, is wrestling with an ethical and moral dilemma.

One of his favorite pastimes now that he is more or less retired is riding the fields of farms he owns outside Scottsville, Ky., checking to make sure the fence lines are cleared of brush -- a key indicator of a good farmer -- admiring his cattle and checking on the condition of the tobacco he grows.

And that's the rub. Turner gave up smoking years ago for health reasons, and Dollar General won't sell cigarettes on ethical grounds, even though based in a state famed for its burley tobacco and fine bourbon.

"I don't know how much longer I'll be growing tobacco," Turner said.

Ethics, moral leadership, honesty and fairness. All remain prime considerations for Turner, now 79, throughout his business career and during a "retirement" that still involves visiting his office at Dollar General's distribution center in Scottsville six days a week.

Turner recently funded the Cal Turner Family Foundation with $4 million to establish at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn., the Cal Turner Center for Moral Leadership. Vanderbilt, which Turner attended for a year, and from which his son, Cal Jr., graduated, now is searching for an ethics professor to fill an endowed moral leadership chair.

Every student at Vanderbilt will be exposed to ethics and leadership, Turner said.

Similarly, every student at Lindsey Wilson College, a liberal arts school in Columbia, Ky., with an enrollment of 1,200, will be exposed to two semesters of leadership and communications skills at the J.L. Turner Leadership Center, named after his father. Turner donated $350,000 to Lindsey Wilson to build the center and endowed the college with Dollar General stock now worth $4 million.

Students will get a leg up on the business world, Turner said, by learning to communicate effectively, learning to articulate and learning how to listen, Turner said.

Lindsey Wilson bestowed on its benefactor an honorary doctorate of philosophy. "It should be called a Doctor of Donations," Turner said with a typical self-deprecating chuckle.

Spurning another Kentucky product, its bourbon, poses no ethical problem, however, for Turner. "I like scotch and soda, any brand," he said. "I'm a practicing, backsliding Methodist."

Nor does it bother him to steal a few ideas about retailing whenever the opportunity arises.

"Sam Walton was an expert at selecting his competitor's best ideas. Like him, I've tried to copy good retailing methods," Turner said. "There's nothing original in retailing."

Other similarities with Walton also come to mind: the small-town, rural origins of their chains, devotion to family, devotion to their businesses as their lives, education as a favored philanthropy and fairness.

"I want to be remembered primarily for my honesty and fairness," Turner said. In its early days, Dollar General grew through partnerships of Turner and others.

"I had 15 to 20 partners," he said. "We had a give and take deal. If any disagreements arose, the other could either buy me out or sell his interest. It's a matter of pride that all of my ex-partners are still my friends.

"You must be honest and fair in your dealings," Turner said. "You have to be so you can make your next deal."

In another similarity to Walton, Turner never really retired, although he passed on the reins at Dollar General to his son, Cal Jr. some years ago. But he still keeps an office at Dollar General's distribution center in Scottsville. He was even in his office on Labor Day.

"I need somewhere to go, so I can act like I'm working. I have a couple of long couches in the office and do take a nap once in a while. But I try not to let anybody know.

"It's not hard to go to the office on Labor Day if you enjoy your work," Turner said. "It will consume your energies. Work becomes your play."

"I got my start during the depression with my father buying stocks of bankrupt merchants," Turner said. "I never wanted to be anything but a retailer."

But on Labor Day, "I couldn't fuss at anybody," Turner said, "and the phones weren't ringing.

"There was nothing to do except read store reports, so I went home at one o'clock."

Similarities between Turner and Walton break down, though over the issue of individual style of leadership.

Walton, of course, was great at cheerleading in the field and at headquarters. In contrast, Turner prefers individual, one-on-one contact, complementing someone for accomplishments after the fact and avoiding public speeches when he can.

Turner couldn't shun the limelight last month, when he had to make a few remarks upon his acceptance of the Discounter of the Year honor.

"This retailer from Scottsville, Kentucky, is honored. When you honor me you honor my family, Betty, Laura Jo, Steve and Cal Jr. My family includes our customers vendors and shareholders. Our team has its act together. It listens to my opinions and runs the store better than I ever did." With his usual modesty, Turner said the speech just "proves I can read."