BOUNTIFUL — Home décor superstore At Home opened its doors in Bountiful earlier this year. This new store, which opened on Feb. 4, is one of three Utah stores, also located in Provo and Riverdale. A fourth store in Sandy is scheduled to open this summer.
The CEO of At Home, Lewis “Lee” Bird, understands good values in business. In his three years with the company, he has successfully applied many policies that reflect his beliefs as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“He put into place things this brand never had before, like paid maternity and paternity leave," said Stacey Sullivan, director of public relations and corporate communications for At Home stores. "We now give new dads four weeks off, paid, which they can take over any period of time if they want to spread it out to help the new mom. After you’ve been with the company for two years, you can take time off to give back to local charities as well.”
This focus on families and community has worked — At Home had only 58 stores when Bird started at the company. Now it has 111.
“Our store is for everybody, its home décor and everyday low prices,” Bird said. “It’s a store for every stage of life. I have two (kids) at BYU in Provo. When we need items for their dorm rooms, we can set them up with items from the store, same for when they move to their first apartment off campus, to their first home.”
Bird joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 10. His wife, Linda, is a convert as well — Bird baptized her when she was 21. They are the parents of eight children.
“We all have it in our consciences to know what is the right thing to do," Lee Bird said. "For example, we have an associate, and his wife passed away tragically in South Carolina. I called him that night to see how he was doing. My daughter happened to be serving a mission in South Carolina, and she even happened to be in the city that he lives in."
Bird contacted her mission president and his daughter was able to visit the family and attend the funeral service.
In addition to providing maternity leave, paternity leave and time for community service, Bird has implemented sabbaticals for employees, 401(k)s, increased minimum wage and more than 100 jobs in Utah alone, according to information from the company. He also encourages employees to use all of their vacation days in hopes that it will increase time spent with family.
“We focus on providing retail careers, not just jobs, and rely heavily on promoting from within,” Bird said.
When tornadoes hit the north Texas area earlier this year, home base to At Home, the company responded to the thousands who lost their homes by donating more than $40,000 in gift cards to the store. Associates were given time off so that they could volunteer with the Red Cross, Bird said.
“Those principles apply, regardless of your faith. I happen to be LDS, but you could be Christian, you could be Buddhist, you could be Jewish; we all have those same common principles and we talk about that as a team — whatever your faith is, your faith comes back to making those decisions,” Bird said. “In the end, I’ve always said that if we do the right thing, we don’t worry about the outcome. There may not be a short-term outcome, there may not be a long-term outcome, but I think eventually, business will be brought in and we’ll feel good in the process.”
That environment is especially important when considering At Home’s commitment to “help everyone make their house a home.” According to Bird, they are opening stores in Utah because there are so many like-minded families — people who want affordable, welcoming homes.
“They say that home is where the heart is, but we feel like we have a real opportunity to help people make the home a place that brings happiness to them,” Bird said. “Our purpose is not just to run a great business, which we do, but we’re actually trying to make a difference in the lives of people we see every day.”