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When a young man recently strolled into Judy Ott's Sarasota bagel store for a job interview, he was fresh off the beach, in shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops.
Ott is steadfast about employees having a neat and clean appearance, one of several tidy aspects of her management style. “Young man,” she told the prospective employee, “go home and get dressed.” He went home, and he came back better dressed, but he still didn't get the job. Says Ott: “Our needs weren't compatible.”
Ott, 63, maintains that kind of no-nonsense approach every day at the store she runs, Einstein Bros. Bagels. It's one reason why the restaurant, at the high-traffic Bee Ridge Road and U.S. 41 intersection, is one of the best performing stores in the Lakewood, Colo.-based chain, which has 600 locations nationwide.
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