"Male announcer:" "The economy is going through tough times." "Many hardworking Americans blame wealthy CEOs, out of touch with what's going on in their own companies." "But some bosses are willing to take extreme action to make their businesses better. each week, we follow the boss of a major corporation as they go undercover into their own company." " Patrick." "How are you?" " Nice to meet you, Patrick." "This week, 1-800-flowers, the world's largest florist and gift shop." "At the helm of this floral empire are two brothers." "Get your foot off my table." "And one of them has something to prove." "Jim still sees me as his little brother." " Where did you grow up?" " Where did I grow up?" "I grew up here in this business." "I am his partner in this business." "I need to remind him of that." "He'll pose as a new recruit and find out what's really going on inside their company." "We lost air pressure so..." "I was losing air pressure too." "It's, like, I don't want to make this one again." "Having people who are frustrated is the worst thing a business can have." "Let's step it up a notch." "The two brothers will go head-to-head." "What's he doing?" "Is he working?" "You can tell me." "Let me do my job, okay?" "Let me take care of this." "And for the first time ever, the boss is forced to blow his own cover." "I don't know." "But you look familiar." "Find out what happens on the dramatic, season finale of undercover boss." "Undercover boss 1x09 1-800-flowers original air date on April 11, 2010" "Headquartered in Carle Place, New York, 1-800-flowers is the world's largest florist and gift shop, selling gift baskets, cookies, and chocolates." "Running this billion dollar business are two brothers, founder and CEO Jim McCann and his younger brother Chris." "I'm Chris McCann." "My brother started this business in 1976 with one small flower shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan." "1984, he had 12 flower shops here in the New York metropolitan area." "Jim sat down and he told me I had to go help him." "It wasn't what I planned on doing." "My intent was to be a lawyer." "But I gave it a shot because he convinced me that we could grow something big." "We went public in 1999, and we've been growing ever since." "And it's unfortunate that both my father and my mother both died at a relatively early age." "So we often sit and talk about the regret we have that our parents really didn't see the success we've had and how proud my father and my mother both would've been of us." "It's a shame that they left us so early." "Jim is the CEO of our business." "As such, he's the personality of our business." "He's the front man." "So I think it would be very difficult for Jim to go undercover." "He's been doing our commercials since 1992." "It's easy to give someone that warm, fuzzy feeling with gifts under $30." "Myself, I focus on the day-to-day operations of our business." "I'm the nuts and bolts guy of the company." "I'm getting together with Joe tomorrow and, uh, I'll take a look at it there." "Jim's ideas and mine are always two very different things." "He has a really good organizational skill." "He--he approaches problems in a very pragmatic kind of way." "I'll be less pragmatic and tend to focus on what--the--the dream of what it can be." "Today I thought we'd do something a little different as I forewarned you." "Hopefully Jim and I meet somewhere in the middle." "For all the years we've been working together," "Jim still sees me as his little brother." "Get out of here." "But I am his partner in this business." "And sometimes I think I need to remind him of that." "Jim has asked me to go undercover." "I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to make sure I understand this business as well as I think I do because I want to run this company one day." "That's my plan." "Morning, Phyllis." "I'm just checking in with my brother before I head out to do my undercover mission." "You look even fuzzier than I do." "You like that?" "You like that look?" "It's different." "Get your foot off my table." " Where did you grow up?" " Where did I grow up?" "I grew up here in this business." "So how do you feel about your expedition here?" "I think it's gonna be great." "What are you dreading the most?" "The aspects of the business that I don't know as well." "'Cause you're not as comfortable." "Right." "I'm not as comfortable." "So if I get in and work in the chocolate factory," "I don't know that business." "I can't wait to Sp-- to spy in on you along the way." "I-I-I don't want you spying in along the way." "You do enough of that as it is." "You know, Chris is competitive." "He and I sometimes compete on things and have a interesting rivalry." "I think he's concerned that I've always been his boss." "He acts like I'm not." "But I have to every once in awhile remind him." "Have fun, get me some great stories that I can really make fun of you about, but enjoy it too." " Great." " Do good." " I look forward to it." " All right, bud." "Ah, stop." "Ah, come on." "All right." "Do well." "Yeah." "While undercover, I'll be Patty O'Reilly, an out-of-work house-painter traveling with a television crew making a show about entry-level jobs." "I'm at our store in South Plainfield, new Jersey." "Today, I'll be working with one of our designers here." "When a customer orders an arrangement online or comes into one of our stores, our designers are the ones who make the arrangements come to life." "They are the lifeblood of our stores." "And I need to make sure their creativity really comes through." "Because without their skills, we don't have anything to sell." " Hey, Pauline." " Yes." " Hi." "I'm Patrick." " Hi, Patrick." "Patrick." "Pat." "Pattie." "Whatever you want to call me, huh?" "Okay." "Let me give you an apron." "Okay." "Thanks." "I am dreading working as a designer." "It will pull on a skill set that I know I don't have." "What is your job here in this store?" "I am a designer." "I've been a designer for years." "I'm the one that makes the arrangements." "I can make any of these arrangements." "I've made Teddy bears out of flowers." "Cheeseburgers." "You name it, I can be done." " Wow." " Yeah." " Creative." " Yes, very." "This is our spring 2010 products." " You come up with these?" " No." "I'd love to." " Who does?" " I have no b--no clue." "Somebody in corporate does it." "Okay." "All right." "Cool." "I need to make 15-20 arrangements for deliveries going out today." "Okay." "Just cover up the oasis." "Work your way all the way around." " Up high or down low?" " Down low." "I'm actually gonna cut some of those pieces for you just to give you a little bit of an edge." "About twice as long as you, but I'm there." "Just try and relax." "Have fun with it." "No, you still got two more." "Look." "Oh, I'm sorry." "Try and keep pace with you." "Just cut 'em." "Shorter." "Shorter." "Couple pieces around the side and then one in the center." "Okay." "This one needs to be more in the center." " How fast was I now?" " That was better." " Right here?" " Uh, yeah." " Put it over there too?" " Yeah." "All right, let's put this off to the side." "And that makes 20 arrangements done, right?" "Yes." "Pauline, how do you think I'm doing?" "Struggling, very much so." "Patrick, he's trying." "But I don't think he would last in this business." "Sounds like you love doing the design work itself." "I absolutely love it because you help people bring a little bit more joy to that happy occasion." "Sunflowers are my favorite flowers." "Why?" "'Cause they just make you smile." "You got the yellow and the orange." "It's, like, "look at me, I'm Thanksgiving." "Don't you want some Turkey and some stuffing?"" "Does this--what we're making have a name?" "This one is called "tickle pink."" "I love these names." "You know, when they first come out, they're, like, "oh, this one's gonna be fun." "I can't wait to make that one."" "And then after your, like, hundredth, it's, like, "I don't want to make this one again."" "There is one arrangement, it's called "lots of love."" "And it's been here since I've been here-- since 1997." "And now it's, like, they need to retire it and come out with something new." "Something different." "1-800-flowers is outdated." "Not saying to step away from the "old school" arrangements, but let's step it up a notch." "There's design shows just like any other industry has." "Right." "And I try and go because it's not just floral design anymore, it's more floral art." "Instead of a wristlet for, like, the prom, you're actually making a bracelet with flowers on it." " With flowers?" " Yeah." "Are some products too old?" "Do they need to be spruced up a little bit?" "Maybe she's right." "When I go to the different shows to get some new ideas, I pay for it out of my pocket." "Your boss doesn't pay for you to do that?" "No." "So what kind of ongoing training do you get from the company?" "Nothing." "I've talked to people that I know in corporate and asked them why and never really got, like, a true, full answer." "I was dumbfounded when she said," ""no, there is no training."" "That's our job as a franchiser is to provide training programs." "They exist." "They're available." "We need to make sure that people are aware of them because having people who are frustrated is the worst thing a business can have." "West via here." "Beautiful." " Perfect." " Okay." "All right, so that's basically it for today." " I appreciate your help." " Not a problem." " Thank you very much." " Thank you." "The--the whole training thing-- her being unaware that we have these training programs, these design councils that she can participate in is very, very frustrating." "We have good programs." "I got to make sure people are aware of it." "Coming up," "Chris finds out the chocolate factory can be bittersweet." "Oh, jeez." "I got to get Nicki." "Nic!" "Nicole!" "And later, he's forced to break his cover." "Hey, Steven." "Recognize me?" "Chris?" "Chris McCann, president of 1-800-flowers, pay gym, cable, utility and other monthly bills is undercover, trying out entry-level jobs in his own company." "Today, he's at the Fannie may plant where chocolate is produced and distributed around the country." "I'm here at our Fannie may plant." "This gives me an opportunity to get in and really understand the chocolate business from a different perspective than I've seen it so far in the several years since we've owned Fannie may." " Hi." " Patty O'Reilly." "How are you?" " How are you?" " I'm good." "Thanks." "Um..." "So I'm supposed to start with you." "Okay." "I have some shirts that you can put on and a hair net-- I'll show you where it's at." "Okay." "Thanks." "So the machine I actually run is called an enrober." "A what?" " It's called an enrober." " Okay." "Essentially what it does is it enrobes the candy with chocolate." "We happen to be doing peanut butter pretzels today." "Right now, this plant produces about 10 million pounds of chocolate per year." "All right." "I need to make sure that we can ramp that up to anywhere between 16 and 20 million pounds per year." "And then we just make our way down to the bottom where they are coming off the line and they're being bulked." "We're gonna let you try to do this for a few minutes, see how it goes." "When this box gets full, you just slide it, you close it, and then you stick it on a skid." " Okay." " You put a bag in a shipper." " All right." " You're gonna come over here." "Grab the tapper." "You want these all the way full to the top 'cause these weigh 30 pounds and we like to keep the weight consistent." "Now you need to slide this." "The whole thing." "The whole key to this is making sure you get another box made before this one gets too full 'cause otherwise it will be quite a mess." "And then the whole process starts over again." "But, see, now you got too full." "So what'll happen?" "So we'll have to move a little bit faster." "Okay." "So now the only problem is now I need to go back up to the top." "Okay." "You're gonna leave me, huh?" "Because we're out of something." "I'm sorry." "I have to go." "I'll be here." "Uh, just barely keeping pace here." "This thing moves fast." "I'm always pushing the manager here." ""How can we increase our productivity line on a dollar, dollar fifty per pound." "And certainly, I'm not helping when I'm taping boxes like this one here." "I got to double back now and get this one." "Jesus." "So, pat, we lost air pressure." "So all the belts run on air." "I was losing air pressure too." "So we'll have a few minutes." "We were 1,000 pounds behind when I started." "So, uh, we got some catching up to do." "But what's great is, she says "we'll be doing the paperwork" ""and we'll chart where we are on our productivity" ""and then we'll know whether or not maybe that belt will be get turned up a little bit."" "It sounds like I'm back on." "Whew." "Uh, it's hectic." "You run against the clock." "You got this thing--this machine's gonna back you up." "Oh, jeez." "Can't slow down for a minute." "And I got chocolate falling out of the boxes left and right and the floor is a mess." "I got to get Nicki." "Nic!" "Nicole!" "Oh, jeez." " How's it going, pat?" " Uh, it's hectic." "How's it going?" "You need something?" "I'm gonna need a little hand catching up here." "You're doing fine." "Just put that box over there." "On that skid." "I'll get it." "Don't worry about it." "I got my job done, but I was frantic doing it." "And I found Nicole to simply be calm." "Her manner in the way she would work with me to say" ""it's okay, I'll give you a hand here." "We'll catch you up a little bit."" "Great managerial skill." " Are you okay?" " Yeah, I'm okay." " It's a little fast, huh?" " Yeah." "Usually we do 1100 pounds an hour." "Takes awhile to get used to." "I'm not gonna lie to you." "Who sets the, uh, numbers you're talking about, you?" "I don't know who does it." "They don't consult you on that?" "No." "They don't consult us." "How do they know what we can handle?" "My opinion is I think they look at, like, the paperwork at the end of the day and they see how much we ran so they know what we're capable of." "The people from the office, pat, that make these goals, they never come out to see how hard we have to work." " They don't?" " No." "Never." "It would be nice though, right?" "So they could see--they could see how fast you're working." "I'm surprised you don't get involved in setting the goals." "I--yeah." "I don't know." "So you want to see what we just did?" " Yeah." " Okay." "Okay." "Okay what?" " 1260." " Yeah!" "That's good, right?" "For your first time." "Yeah." "If the goal was 1050, we picked up a little bit there, right?" "We did pick up a lot, actually." "So if you're hitting goal and if it gets raised, do you get incentive for that?" "No, I don't get any incentive." "I need to put some pretzels in the hopper." " Okay." " It gave you a workout." "It did." "When Nicole said to me that the bosses never really come down there and--and--and speak to her about what's going on or--or engage and ask questions, I felt angry and frustrated that it doesn't happen." "I thought we were doing that." "We should be doing that." "That's the way Jim built our company." "And listening to people who are doing the work, that's how we learn." "For Chris' next undercover job, he travels to Boston, Massachusetts." "For the last few years, we've been focused on building our Internet business." "But I've come here to work undercover to make sure that I can reconnect with our stores." "'Cause that's where the brand comes to life." "I've come to one of our top performing stores in the nation." "I wanted to find out what makes this store so successful." "So that we can bring that to all of our stores." "Hi, Dee." "I'm pat." "How are you?" " Hi, Patrick." " Nice to meet you." " How are you?" " Very good." "Nice to meet you too." "Come on in." "You can hang your coat back there." "And if you have any questions for me" " I'll have lots." " Okay." "Good." "So what we'll do is I'll show you how to cut." "Okay." "Good." "Whatever you need me to do." "All right." "You just cut these just straight across?" " Mm-hmm." "At an angle, rather." " Is this good, Dee?" " Very good." " Okay." "How long have you been here?" "This store opened two years ago in January." "I've been here since." "Mm-hmm." "But I've been doing this 25 years." " Oh, is that right?" " Mm-hmm." "Long time." "It's, like, a family shop, you know?" "That's great." " Hi, Dee." " Hi, guys." "This is my boyfriend." "Let me say good morning." "Good morning, sweetheart." "I think I want that one." " You like this one?" " You like that one?" "Do you--am I gonna get my hug?" "Oh, thank you, love." "So you come in here all the time?" "Yeah." "Yeah, we love it here." "This is the only flower shop we go to." "I mean, the kids come in here and they love it." "Dee's so friendly." "I mean, we have had other florists here, but they just don't have the knack that Dee does." " How are you?" " Oh, hi." "How are you?" "So how are you?" "That's Melinda." "She's picking up..." " Corsages?" " Oh, that's perfect." " Okay?" "Small enough?" " Yeah, that's great." "Okay." "Good." "You build up a lot of relationship with your customers, it looks like." "These people are coming to my home." "So I want them to be treated like they're at my home." "She's fantastic." "The connection that she has with her customers-- if I could bottle that and get into that-- into all of our stores, oh, my God." "Got it?" " Hello." " Hello." "Patrick, this is my boss." "This is Steven, the gm." "Steven, this is, uh, a new guy that is gonna be working with us." " How are you?" " I'm good." "How are you?" "Good." "Nice to meet you." "I'm a bit worried because I've met this guy before." "He can blow my cover." "I think he's, uh, suspicious." "Uh, this is, uh, this is not good right now." "I'll just stay in the corner here for a few minutes and hope that--hope this guy doesn't interact with me." "Okay, Patrick, I'm gonna send you with Steven to do this delivery." " Hey, Steven." " Very good." "Recognize me?" "You--you sure?" "Chris?" "Yeah." "I'm undercover right now going around to our businesses trying to figure out how we can do things better." " Uh-huh." "So I need you to keep this confidential." " I will." "No problem." " This is extremely important." " No problem." " All right." "Let's go make this delivery." "You turn it because you're crushing the flowers." " Okay." " There you go." "I was very nervous when he was here." "I didn't want him to all of the sudden turn around and say, "I know you."" "So it was good that I was able to pull him aside and make sure he doesn't blow this." "So, Patrick, you notice that you go and you bring back an old one, right?" "Yeah, yeah." "So I switch it off every week." "That's-- that's nice business." "Patrick, you're all done for today." "You did a great job." "Great." " So I will talk to you soon." " Well, thank you very much." "It was good to see you." "Thank you." "Thank you." " Thanks." " Thank you." "Nice working with you." "Thanks for the help." "I appreciate it." "You're very welcome." "Dee is a perfect living example of what my brother always says:" "Build a relationship first, do business second." "One thing I really admire about Jim is his ability to understand people and connect with people very quickly." "And that's why this opportunity is so great for me to really understand people at different levels of our company." "It's something I constantly work on improving." "Today brought it all home for me." "I need to make sure that people can connect with me if I'm going to be their leader." "Coming up, Chris gets a surprise visitor that pushes him to the edge." "Let me do my job, okay?" "Let me take care of this." "Chris McCann, a boss undercover in his own company, is finding out that the frontline jobs are a lot tougher than he anticipated." "Nic!" "Nicole!" "Chris's undercover journey continues at a flower shop in Massachusetts." "Today, I'm at one of our stores." "I'm going to find out how we service this local community, because this community's going to be different than the store I was in yesterday." "I need to find out how we adapt to the local customer." "Hi." "How are you?" "I'm pat." "I'm Sheryl." " Hey, Sheryl." "Nice to meet you." " You too." "How are you today?" "Good." "A little chilly." " Yeah, a little." " You're gonna train me?" " I certainly am." " Very good." "I could use it." " Wanna take your coat off?" " Please." "What I'm gonna do first, is I'm gonna just process some flowers." "Okay." "Pull 'em out." "Why don't you take that?" "Sure." "Right into the back." "How are you?" "Good." "What type of flowers do we need today?" "Okay, do you want cut flowers wrapped up?" " Wrapped up would be good." " Wrapped up." "Usually I order on the phone." "I don't usually come into the store." "You're new." "It's been only here for a few months." "No, no, no, no." "We opened actually last February." "Oh, really?" "Have you been here since then, Sheryl?" "I have." "I actually went down and I worked in the design center to see what the company was all about." "Then I came here as the manager when it was opening." "Have you guys been real busy?" "Um, it depends." "Honestly, I just gotta get people to realize what 1-800-flowers is." "'Cause they think it's only online." "How many people come in here and think that there's just operators sitting in here." "Maybe the sign could be a little bit larger or something like that." "Ah, we gotta figure out something." "That looks nice." "Oh, yeah, it's beautiful." "That was fast too." "Design center, they train you to do this?" "No, no, no, I've been in this business for many years." "Have you?" "Yeah, I actually owned my own flower shop for about 13, 14 years." " Oh, yeah?" " Yep." "All right." "Well, we'll see you again for sure." "Have a great afternoon." "I'm going in the back, and I'm gonna make up some arrangements, so just clean up." "Okay." "Call me if you need me." "This oughta be interesting." "I would have liked a little more customer activity." "I have to figure out how I can help her get the customers in the door." "There's something wrong there." "What time of day is your busiest time of day, Sheryl?" "It's not real busy all day long any day." "And even there's some days" "I--we're-- there's nothing." "Totally different from what I've ever been used to." "Like I said, I owned my own flower shop, and it wasn't that hard to get them, as hard as it is because of the name." "Why would that be?" "'Cause of this area." "I mean, this is a very ritzy neighborhood." "This is old money, lots of money." "I had a woman one day come in here and say," ""you know, I'd really wish you'd change your name" ""'cause I can't buy anything here, and I love your stuff."" "And I said, "well, why couldn't you buy it?"" "She says, "'cause I cannot send something out to my friends that say that."" "Getting people educated on what this store is has been hard." "Once I can convince them, let them know who I am," "I can win them over." "So how do you do that?" "Talking to them." "Other than that, nothing." "'Cause we haven't done any advertising or anything for this store." "We haven't gotten into the neighborhoods to let them know that we're here." "People don't even know there's a flower shop here." "There's so used to driving by and thinking it's a dry cleaners." "So they think this is a dry cleaner?" "They think it's still a dry cleaner." "Wow." "It can't take a year for people to think it's still the old shop that was here." "But she's right, the advertising we do is all about driving customers online." "I have to do right by Sheryl." "She needs my support, and I'm going to make sure she gets it." "So very easy store to close up." "All right, thank you." " Nice meeting you." " Thank you very much." "Night, Sheryl." "Bye-bye." "Good night." "One of the things Sheryl spoke about was the challenge that she has in getting people to realize that the 1-800-flowers store is a local florist." "That hurts me, because we grew up as florists." "We are florists." "With people like Sheryl who know the business so well, once we get them interacting with the customers, that will change, but that hurts to hear." "I'm going into this store to FD out:" "Do we have a younger generation of people that I can count on to grow our business over the next ten years?" "How you doing?" "Looking for Jose." " Yeah, I'm Jose." " You're Jose?" " Yeah." " Patrick." "How are you?" "Nice to meet you, Patrick." "You were gonna train me today?" " Okay, yes, no problem." " Okay, good." "You can stack these here going this way." "How long you been working here?" "How old are you?" "I'm 19." "Nice, nice." "Yeah, it was pretty tough, but it was a good experience." "Get everything nice and sweeped up." "Watch your feet, Lou." "Coming behind you." "Thank you so much." " Does this look good?" " Yeah, that's good." "Yeah." "I don't know, but you look familiar." "You know, the other flower shop in Bethpage?" " Nah." " No?" "This is my first one." "Oh, okay." "I relish the opportunity of not being recognized, getting in there and working with them side by side, kidding around, learning a little bit more about them as people, what they think of the company." "I just hope I didn't lose that now, the rest of the day." "Thank you for calling 1-800-flowers in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn." "How may I help you today?" "Good morning." "My name is Yanique." "I'm calling from 1-800-flowers headquarters." "I'm looking for the manager." "Yes, you're speaking to him." "I was just informed by someone on my staff that Jim McCann, the CEO and founder of 1-800-flowers, is actually in your area, and he would like to stop by the store." "Okay, no problem." "You got it, ma'am." "All right, thank you so much." " Okay." " Okay." "Bye-bye." "Just try to keep it nice and neat." "The CEO, Jim McCann, he's gonna be stopping in by today to check the store." "Yeah, okay, I can understand" "Jim wanting to come and check on what's going on." "But he coulda called me." "He coulda just hooked up with me later." "Let me do my job, okay?" "Let me take care of this." "This is the first time he's stopped in the store." "Yeah." "I've seen him in the commercials." "He's gonna talk to me and stuff like that." "Yeah." "So it's like we're gonna meet a celebrity." "Like, he's famous." "Keep everything neat." "Okay." "So when he comes in, he sees everything's spotless." "You know what you can do also, um," "Patrick, like, see the garbage here?" "Clean the top a little and kinda straighten that up a little more straight." " Organize it?" " Yeah, organize it." "Okay, let me just finish that, and then I'll do this." "You know what you can do also?" "Kinda neaten up a little bit." "Just organize it?" "Jose's kicking everybody, including me, into high gear now, 'cause the head honcho's coming down." "I think if they knew I was coming, they'd be sprucing up like this too." "It's just ironic that they have me doing the sprucing up." "Get this cleared for her, huh, so she can clean?" "Yeah, she can clean, yeah." "I wanna make you look good for your visit." "Yeah, we wanna make it look very nice before he gets here." "Try and keep yourself busy." "All right, my man?" "All right, I can do that." "I can do it." "I'm Jim McCann." "How are you?" " Hi, I'm crystal." " Crystal?" " Yes." " Hi." "Tania." " Tania, how are you?" " Nice to meet you." "Is the manager around today?" "He's in the back." "What's he doing?" "Is he working?" "You can tell me." "Yeah." " Jim McCann?" " Yeah." " Jose." "Nice to meet you." " Jose?" " Yes, Jose." " Nice to meet you." " Heard a lot about you." " All good, I'm hoping." "Yeah, good, yeah." "I didn't like the fact that he popped into the store like that." "He didn't consult me on that, and that annoyed me." "I was nervous." "I didn't want the cover to be blown." "Coming in was way too risky." "This is going too far." "Patrick." "Patrick, this is Jim McCann." "How you doing?" "I'm Pattie." "How are you?" "Oh, he's the trainee?" "Yeah, he's the trainee." " He's showing me what to do." " He is?" "Yeah, I'm showing him little basic stuff, like wrapping, sweeping up." " It's his first day?" " Yes." "He was, like, trying to get away from me so that we wouldn't have any interaction." "So I was just trying to turn up the flames on the degree of discomfort he felt." "Yeah, yeah, I'll take the shot." "Me and Jim are totally the ones here." " Gotta hold it or-- - hold it." "Okay." "And maybe you could have the new guy and one of the gals on the front make me a nice $100 bouquet before I go." "Sure." "It's all about the wrapping." "Let's see what the kid does." "Here you go." "Would you like, like, a bow on it?" "Nope, just like that's fine." "It looks nice except he wrapped it a little too tight around the crown." "Don't you think?" "Yeah, I would say, yeah." "So smack him." "Like me to loosen it up for you, Jim?" "This is perfect." "Thanks, Jose." "You're the best." "Once again, it was a pleasure meeting you, Jim." "Take care, man." "It's nice to see him awkward like that, and I have all the controls." "'Cause usually he's gonna give it back, but in this case he couldn't." "I'm still angry at Jim." "But seeing him come in the store today allowed me to see firsthand how our employees really view us." "You guys have a great weekend." "Take care, Jim." "You got it." "I'm gonna buy you a slice, 'cause I'm starving." "Okay." "Oh, thanks, man." "Sure." "We'll just jump across the street here." "I appreciate your help." "Just doing my job, pat." "So how'd you wind up starting when you were so early?" "Um, what it was," "I was young." "My father passed away at an early age, when I was 12." "So things was tough financially, so my mom, she was struggling with bills and stuff." "So I started looking for a part-time job, and I tried here one day for an application and they hired me the next week after they called me." "I started, just like you, taking out garbage, and they liked what they saw, and they were happy, and before you know it, they hired me." "And everything just fast-forward until now." "Yeah, a lot of bumps in the road, you know, but we pulled it all through and, you know, I'm here today." " You still live with your mom?" " Yes." "So we struggled." "You know, you get a lot of losses before you get a win." "You know?" "That's right, yeah, yeah." "I had a respect for Jose from just working with him." "And then when I realized his life story, you can't help but have the utmost respect for somebody like that." "The fact that he went out and got a job at such a young age to support his family is just unbelievable." "Listening to the story of Jose and him losing his father reminds me so much of when I lost mine." "The day I lost my father," "I remember very well." "My father had just gone through the third operation for esophageal cancer." "He didn't think he could do it." "And I sat there and spoke to him one time and told him he had to do it because he always taught me you never give up, you never quit." "And so he didn't quit." "He fought it." "And I'm very proud that he didn't." "And I'll take that to the grave with me." "As long as I live, I will never quit." "Coming up, Chris stands up to his older brother." "What was that?" "I'm like, "I'm trying to avoid you."" "And later, he summons his employees to headquarters and reveals his true identity." "I'm Chris McCann," "Now my week of undercover work is done, and I'm going to report back to my brother and tell him about everything that I learned." "I got you good." "What was that?" "And then, "come here, get in the picture, get in the picture."" "I'm like, "I'm trying to avoid you."" "What a week." "What I learned is I'm looking to take this company to the next evolution of growth." "We have such great people in these jobs, and we have to make sure we give them the support mechanisms to really turn it into the next stage." "You know, I was with a lady up in the north end in Boston." "Kids coming in to give her presents." "Moms stopping by." "It's like our first shop on first Avenue." "Brings back memories." "It brings back memories to where it started." "We never get away from that." "That's what it's all about." "But I don't know if I'm coming back." "This is too good." "How do you think this changes your standing in the company?" "I've prided myself on being close to the business." "And you and I spoke as I started this journey, right, that it was nothing I couldn't do." "Well, I learned I couldn't pack a bowl with chocolate." "And you've said this all the time." "The main thing is your success starts with good people." "So it sounds to me like you learned some interesting lessons this week." "There's a lot." "Now, I need some things to change." "I need you to trust me." "I'm your little brother, but I'm running the company, okay?" "Well..." "I'm very excited." "Now is the time I get to reveal my true identity to the employees" "I've worked with for the last week." "Well, I'm a little nervous." "Totally clueless at this point." "Very confused right now." "I have no idea why I'm here or what I'm doing." " Hi, Dee." " Patrick." "Oh." "Pat." " Hi, Patrick." " So you remember me, huh?" "I do." "I'm not Patrick O'Reilly." " No?" " I'm Chris McCann." "Oh." "I..." "Like, hey, I'm just completely shocked right now." "You got me." "I said, "this guy is good around flowers."" "Nicole, I have a keen awareness of how hard you work." "You saw how hard I was working." "But what was amazing was as soon as you stepped in, everything went calm." "Mm-hmm." "Thank you." "I take pride in it." "When you put me on the line, the first thing you told me was how much we had to make." "One of the things that I'd like to do for you, Nicole, is to make sure that you meet, when those goals are being set, with your direct managers so that you're a part of the process in setting those goals." "I really appreciate it." "I'm not done yet." "Your hard work and great attitude has inspired me to create an incentive program for you to make more money when you exceed your goals." "Well, thank you." "I appreciate it." "They'll have an incentive system in place." "Makes me feel good." " Great." " I'm very happy right now." "Like, I'm a little surprised, and I'm really happy that somebody's noticing that I work so hard." "Pauline, I loved working with you." "Thank you." "And I was amazed to find out you're such a talented creative designer." "You mentioned when we were looking at the collection that it would be your dream to have input to that." "Yes, absolutely." "I'm going to make that dream come true." "Really?" " Yeah." " All right." "I have a design council who work on upcoming trends and design styles." "I'm going to set you up to spend a day training with them." "And I'd like to ask you to come up with one of our next collections, so that you now can tell all the rest of the florists that we work with that you came up with that collection." "Oh, my God." "That means the world to me, it really does, to have--to have that." "Mm-hmm." "After all these years, to be able to do that." "I can't believe it." "My dad's been gone eight years, and he helped push me to get to where I am." "And I know he's looking down on me." "And he's proud, and he's happy." "Dee, I went undercover into your store, specifically because you have one of the highest grossing stores in our system, and I wanted to find out the secret as to why." "I learned the secret." "The secret is you." "Oh, thank you." " You're an amazing person." " Thank you." "I was blown away by the way customers came in and said hello to you." "I was so impressed with you as a person." "And I thought to myself afterwards-- one thing we've never done in this company is to name one of our arrangements after a person." "What a great way to honor you, by naming one of the 1-800-flowers arrangements after you." "And your customers step into a little respite of paradise when they come into your shops." "So I'd like to call the arrangement "Dee's paradise."" "That's beyond anything I could have imagined." "Beyond." "Oh, unbelievable." "Thank you." "You're a wonderful person." "Oh, thank you." "To have somebody think that you do such a good job that they would name a flower after you, that's an amazing honor." "I can't even put it into words." "That's all I'm gonna say." "It's amazing." "Sheryl, you spoke a lot about the biggest challenge you have in that shop." "The public thinks that just 1-800-flowers is just the Internet thing." "And that's what we need to address, and I share your frustrations." "As you said, once you get people in the door, once you get people to know you, their perception changes." "How could they not by meeting such a person like yourself?" "Thank you." "I want them to see you for the florist that IOU really are." "I'd like to ask you to work with some of my best local store marketing people." "Let's come up with a plan." "I'm overwhelmed." "I--I thank you for the opportunity." "Thank you, Sheryl." "I've never had anybody just recognize me for what..." "I have to offer." "I'm gonna pop." "I'm gonna explode." "When I went into your store, Jose," "I was looking to see:" "Where are the new, younger generation of leaders of our company going to come from?" "Well, I'm thrilled to say I think I found it." "Wow." "One of the things I don't know if you're aware of we have in our company is called a mentorship program." "It assigns generally younger people to someone who has a little bit more experience, and that role is to mentor that person." "I would be privileged and honored if you would allow me to be your mentor." "I'm not-- I'm not sure what to say." "I think working together, I'm pretty confident that you'll become our youngest franchise owner in the history of the company." "Wow." "And to get a franchise does require money." "There are fees involved, there's start-up cost." "When the time comes, and you're qualified, and you're ready to start that process, you can count on the first $25,000 coming from me." "I'm" "I feel like this is a dream right now." "I'm pretty shocked." "I'm only 19, and this is the most-- the biggest thing to happen in my life ever." "I don't know what to say." "I feel like I can't breathe, and this is great." "It's fantastic, and I can't wait till I tell my mom." "I can't believe it, mom, that was Jim McCann's brother, mom." "It was his brother, and I was speaking to him, mom." "And he wants to be my mentor, mom." "I'm gonna open up a franchise." "Really, mom, I can't believe it, mom." "This is incredible." "This is it." "I've gathered the whole company together so that I can share with them my experiences of being undercover." "Ladies and gentlemen, my brother, Chris McCann." "Thank you." "Thank you." "I'm Chris McCann, and for the past week" "I went undercover mainly to gain insights into our business." "And I gotta tell you, the experience was phenomenal." "Let me use some video to let you see what I've been doing for the last week." "Nic!" "Nicole!" "This guy's not very good at anything, huh?" "Don't forget, payback can be dangerous." "This is a pretty simple arrangement." "Pauline, how do you think I'm doing?" "Struggling, very much so." "Okay." "I don't think he would last in this business." "So I have to tell you it was an absolutely fantastic experience." "And I learned some great things along the way, things that we're doing so well." "But I also learned there's a lot of details that we need to pay attention to." "We, as leaders, are in a position to impact people's lives." "I am a boss of a company that's all about being thoughtful." "From this day forward, I am making the commitment to each and every one of you that I am going to be more thoughtful about you." "Thank you." "I think it's time now for you to use this as a springboard to really step up in a much bigger way." "No question." "Thank you very much." "The whole experience made me realize that it's not about proving to my brother or anyone else that I'm capable of leading this company." "It was about proving to myself that I know what's necessary to lead this company into the future." "But I'm always going to do it with a keen eye out for the people of our business."