Food for Thought:
How Walsh prepared Alan Hartline to go from grocery store bagger to owner
Alan Hartline chose to attend Walsh College because he wanted to enter the world of finance and get out of what he calls “the crazy food business.”
“I failed miserably,” Hartline says now.
Instead, the education gained from two Walsh degrees and an unanticipated change in career direction have helped make Hartline a success in the very sector he initially wanted to leave — first as an executive for large grocery companies, and now as the owner of a popular specialty grocery market in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Hartline was already a 10-year grocery veteran, working his way up from bagger to a management position for Kroger. But he wanted a change of direction, so he chose Walsh to earn a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1994 and then a Master of Science in Finance in 1997.
“Finance, the stock market, and investment banking really intrigued me,” Hartline explains. “I had heard a lot of remarkable things about Walsh and the instructors that were there. When I got the bachelor’s, it seemed like an easy decision to continue on.”
Meanwhile, Kroger had decided to centralize all its financial operations at its headquarters in Cincinnati. A move south to Ohio would have limited Hartline’s ability to complete his degree program at Walsh. The company offered him an opportunity to switch gears and specialize in merchandising and marketing.
“After six months, I really fell in love with it,” Hartline says. “I enjoyed learning about the aspects of grocery merchandising, the four P’s (price, product, promotion, and place), and more. I’m so thankful today that I learned how to drive dayto- day business.”
Equipped with the combination of retail merchandising expertise and the financial education from Walsh, Hartline began to build an impressive career. After leaving Kroger, he served as a merchandising and marketing executive for A&P and the private brand development firm Daymon; Hartline then moved to west Michigan for a position at Spartan Stores. As the executive vice president for merchandising and marketing, he was instrumental in engineering the turnaround of Spartan Stores.
Hartline’s Walsh education has been of excellent value in helping him develop as an executive and an entrepreneur. He has been able to offer an extra level of expertise that other merchandising and marketing executives may not possess.
In 2013, Hartline purchased Kingma’s Market, a specialty food and beverage retail store located in Grand Rapids. He was not the highest bidder, but the Kingma family felt he was the best choice to carry on the market and what it means to the community. Hartline has made many changes to the store, with emphasis on the “foodie” who wants to eat well and support local businesses.
“It’s been a lot of fun to take all of my learning from growing up bagging groceries and stocking, to Walsh classes, to the corporate office, and [apply them] now as an entrepreneur,” Hartline says.
One of those applications was Hartline’s establishment of a matching 401(k) retirement program for Kingma’s employees three years ago. His passion for investing in the stock market came from many of the skills learned in classes at Walsh.
“My crystal ball doesn’t always have HD [high-definition], but I have been very successful in the market,” Hartline says. “It’s been fun for me to share my success with my employees. A lot of that is due to the exposure I had in my stock market classes at Walsh.”
The core economic, financial, and accounting curriculum of Walsh “opened my eyes to diverse ways of thinking,” Hartline explains. “It was such a well-rounded program. I would not have changed a thing.”
