HAC, the Oklahoma company that owns Cash Saver and Homeland, is employee-owned. Its chief executive, Marc Jones, said the initial hero pay last year was “a reflection of the surge of people in our stores, and when that surge died down it seemed like the appropriate time to end it.” It was a huge expense for the company, he said, which has about 80 stores and 3,400 employees, and competes with Walmart.Even with a better year than usual, groceries are a “peculiarly low-profit” business, Mr. Jones said. Until March, he said, “it was a big question of whether the local grocery …
