For our 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year, knowing his community helped him serve it better.
When Anthony (Tony) Gonino became the market manager for Market 197 — which covers Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan — it felt like coming home. Tony grew up in the area and his ties to the community run deep.
He started at Walmart in 2007 and moved through various manager positions before taking on the role of market manager in 2020. His first assignment was Market 201 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana, where he spent three years. “Then they asked me to come home,” Tony recalls.
Though the whole region is his home base now, Tony admits Store 4383 in Dearborn has a special place in his heart, because he’s been there four times in his career — including his first time before it was even a Walmart. When the location became Store 4383, he was there as an assistant manager.
Then, last November, after the store went through a remodel, he was able to be there for the reopening as the market manager. And if that wasn’t enough, Tony’s father helped design the original layout of the store when it was first built!
“I have always been part of that community,” Tony says.
Bringing local flavor
Tony’s personal connection with the area means he knows a lot about the community’s makeup and its unique needs.
The region has a large Middle Eastern population, with Dearborn featuring both the largest mosque in North America and the Arab American National Museum. There is also a sizable Hispanic community in the area.
But when Tony started as market manager, the stores in Market 197 weren’t carrying many Middle Eastern goods or products from Goya, a major Hispanic food producer and distributor.
Tony decided to change that, starting with dry goods before moving on to fresh foods.
It took time and extensive coordination. “You can't just flick a switch,” Tony shares.
Tony and his team had to find vendors and work with Walmart buyers. They studied what competitors were carrying. With roundtables and pulse surveys, community members shared what products they wanted and needed.
“Listen to your people”
With food items now on the shelves and more in the works, Tony says they’re now looking at ways to stock items like hijabs. They are also working with local businesses that cater to the Middle Eastern and Hispanic communities.
The numbers make it clear there was a need in the community: Tony says sales of Middle Eastern products are up 77% year over year and sales of Goya products are up 150%!
“The people told me what they needed, and I just tried to orchestrate it,” Tony says. “Listen to your people.”
And for orchestrating the introduction of these diverse products to the shelves of Walmart stores across Market 197, Tony earned the Sam M. Walton Entrepreneur of the Year Award! The most prestigious award in our company is presented to outstanding innovators and entrepreneurs, and recipients are announced during the annual Associate Celebration at Associate’s Week.
At the 2024 Associate Celebration, Tony was joined on stage by his family — his parents, his wife and their four children — and there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.
“When that award was presented to me, I was flattered,” Tony shares. “I had never thought in a million years of my career, I'd be here. But it wasn't about the award. It was about the people. I wouldn't have even been thought of if it wasn't for my people. I have an amazing team. This team is relentless. Every single one of them has a special heart for their communities.”
Hometown love
Tony also credits his success to his hometown community. “These people here are with you in good and bad. And there's nothing that they won't do for you. And there's nothing you can accomplish without them,” he shares, tearing up.
And one of those times was when Tony’s daughters was born prematurely and close to death. Tony says about 200 Walmart associates gathered outside the hospital to pray. His daughter survived and is now 8 years old.
“No one has supported me as much as this community and these people,”
Tony makes sure that his community feels that support right back. His stores give back to the community, with turkey drives for the needy, donations for victims of domestic abuse and more. He’s inspired by Sam Walton’s drive to help people live better lives. And he appreciates that the giving goes beyond money and material things — and it goes both ways.
