AT UKROP'S, 'ONE STRIKE AND YOU'RE OUT'

Ukrop's, the only supermarket chain in the Richmond area where you won't
find beer or wine in the
coolers, has adopted a policy that matches its squeaky-clean image:
Use drugs, lose your job.

Ukrop's instituted its zero-tolerance policy in 1997 after an incident
involving an employee using drugs.

Bob Kelley, vice president of operations, declined to elaborate but
said the incident made him and other top managers realize Ukrop's was
as vulnerable to drug abuse as any other shop. "To be honest, I had my
head in the sand," Kelley recalled. "I said, 'You know what? We're a
great company, but we've got our problems. Let's nip them in the bud."

In April, the Ukrop's program was recognized with a 1998 Outstanding
Drug-Free Workplace Award by the Metro Richmond Coalition Against Drugs.

There were six months between the policy's announcement and its
implementation, Kelley said, so any employee who needed help had time
to get it. New employees were told about the policy. But unlike
several other award winners, the chain opted against implementing a
policy that would allow employees who test positive for drug use to
have a second chance if they get treatment and agree to follow-up testing.

"It's an issue of accountability," Kelley said. "In some ways, by
saying it's OK to make one mistake, you're saying it's OK to do it
once. We just don't feel like that's putting teeth into the program.
"We make it very, very clear that there are no second chances, so
don't even consider it," he said.

The company enforces the tough stance with random tests for all 5,500
full- and part-time employees, from President Bobby Ukrop to the
newest bagger. All full-time employees must pass a drug test when
they're hired or promoted, and the company reserves the right to test
any worker who exhibits signs of possible drug or alcohol abuse. Truck
drivers also are tested.

Denis Forbes, who started working part time 10 years ago and since has
become full time and been promoted to manager of the deli section at
the Village Shopping Center store, said being tested can be a bit
humiliating, but the practice makes for better employees. "They know
their number can come up today, tomorrow, next week, whenever," Forbes
said. "You get . . . more conscientious people, I would think."

Kelley said a number of employees have been fired for drug use since
the zero-tolerance policy was implemented, but he wouldn't say how
many.

While advocates of more on-the-job drug testing, including the
coalition and the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, point to its
savings in health care and worker's compensation insurance costs,
Ukrop's doesn't "correlate it in that way," Kelley said. "It's really
tough to quantify what [drug testing] has done to productivity, what
it's done to health care costs," Kelley said. "What you hope, then, is
you're attracting people who are drug-free."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady