When Randy and Bob Harmon were children, they spent time at the family grocery store because it was fun.
"Randy would load me in the cart and buzz me around," Bob Harmon said.
As they got older, their dad "gave them opportunities" to work at the store. They started with part-time tasks like cleaning floors but eventually gained experience in nearly every department, from produce to the bakery.
"It was kind of in the blood," Bob Harmon said. "We knew it and enjoyed it as we were growing up."
Now Randy, 43, and Bob, 41, are vice presidents of consumer affairs and marketing, respectively, for Harmons, Your Neighborhood Grocer. But watching them walk the aisles, interacting with customers and each other, you still half expect them to jump in a cart and zip through the store.
"He's always been my best friend and vice versa," Randy Harmon said. "Get us both together, and we have a lot of fun."
The Harmon brothers try to convey that mixture of family and fun in the television ads they have starred in for the past four years — Bob said they "couldn't afford real talent" — and believe it is one reason the Utah-based grocery store chain has survived industry consolidation and economic downturns to celebrate its 70th birthday this month.
The formula has worked for Lorie Longaker of Sandy. Shopping in the Midvale Harmons last week, she said she likes the store's meat department and its overall selection. But she also appreciates little things like people handing out balloons to her children to keep them happy.
"I like the layout, and I like how friendly everyone is," Longaker said.
Randy and Bob Harmon say promoting a company culture of quality, good prices and customer service was important to their grandparents, Jake and Irene Harmon, when they started The Market Spot fruit stand in 1932 at 3300 South and Main Street. Their store grew in popularity, and Randy Harmon said his grandfather started adding products as customers asked for items in addition to the family-grown produce.
The couple purchased property in Granger in 1945 and built a new store. In 1971, Harmons went to the "superstore" concept, offering a courtesy booth, hardware department, pharmacy, full- and self-service meat department, bakery, post office, dry cleaner, produce department, sporting goods and a full line of groceries. Since then, some stores have added fuel stops and one-hour photo developing.
When Jake Harmon died in 1976, he passed the business on to his son, Terry, and Terry's wife, Doreen.
Now Jake and Irene Harmon's grandsons are helping run the business, along with their wives, some of their children and a trusted support team that they say is "like family."
"We're both a little bit more artistic than being very detail-oriented," Bob Harmon said. "That's why we have good people to help us."
He said the chain is growing by about one store a year — the 11th Harmons will open in Draper in September — and that is plenty.
"It amazes me when some of these (chains) grow by 30 or 40 stores," he said.
"One store just tears us up . . . but we can do one a year," Randy Harmon said.
Harmons has no immediate plans to expand to other states, Bob Harmon said; rather, its managers are focusing on thriving in the challenging Utah market.
"When you're a little bit smaller, you can move a little bit quicker," he said, adding that he is glad the company is not beholden to shareholders or the whims of a volatile stock market.
"With mega-mergers (in the industry), you need uniqueness."
One unique aspect of Harmons is that its owners have chosen not to join Albertsons, Smith's and other grocery chains in requiring shoppers to carry a card from their stores to receive special savings. Instead, Bob Harmon said, Harmons has continued its 25-year-old program of automatically matching competitors' ad prices.
"We couldn't see the value in (cards)," Randy Harmon said. "We would have had to drop something in order to do it."
Harmons customers seem to like the clean, bright stores, which often feature seasonal or other special decorations, Randy Harmon said, and some of those customers' loyalty has lasted for years or been passed on from generation to generation.
Jay Dumas of Midvale fits in the former category. He said he has been a Harmons customer from the beginning, and he likes going to a family-owned business.
"They have good stuff, and as far as I'm concerned, they're cheaper than Albertsons and Smith's," Dumas said. "I've never been in a place where one of (the Harmon family members) has been that they didn't come and see me. They're very sociable."
Bob and Alice Morgan have been Harmons customers for about 30 years.
"It's clean, and we can always find what we want," Alice Morgan said. "It's friendly. . . . It's just a neat store."
Those are the kinds of comments Bob and Randy Harmon love to hear. After all, talking to customers is a big part of what makes work fun, and they hope their children and children's children will pick up on that.
"You really have to have a passion for any business," Bob Harmon said. "We have generations that are actually looking forward to getting in the business. We'd love them to pursue it, but we'd also love them to pursue whatever they want . . . . "We're in a place that we can continue. Randy's daughters work in the company. I have daughters who work in the company. They're showing some interest, but it's definitely a decision they'll have to make for themselves."
If their children do decide to follow in the family footsteps, the Harmon brothers said, there is no reason the company can't survive for at least another 70 years.
Not that Randy and Bob plan to leave any time soon.
"As long as we can be successful, we want to be in this game," Randy Harmon said. "It's a hard game, it's a competitive game, but it's fun."
The aisles in a grocery store are wide, after all, and they may want to take one of those carts for a spin.
E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com