This week, our FSI highlight focuses on a man in one of the most important roles at FSI, it’s Malcolm Dees one of our delivery drivers out of Charleston, SC. Our drivers are our personal connection to our customers, and they are the face of FSI every day.

Malcolm has worked at FSI for 14 ½ years (his 15th Anniversary will be September 8th, can you believe he remembers his exact hire date!). His current position is Product Distribution Specialist, but he has also served as the Operations Manager for our Charleston Branch.

Born and raised in North Central Florida (Gainesville, Lake City & Hatch Bend), Malcolm is a self-described “country boy through and through”. Before coming to FSI, Malcolm was member of the United States Navy. He retired in 1997 as a Chef Petty Officer after serving 20 years as an Engineman. He is happily married to his wife Pat, and together they have one daughter, four sons, and seven grandkids (4 girls and 3 boys). Wow, that could be a sports team!

A typical day of work starts bright and early at 6:00am. He verifies that all delivery drivers have all their products for that day, including his own truck. Before heading out, he checks emails to make sure there are no last-minute requests from Sales Reps or Customer Service Reps, and then he’s on the road. After he’s made the day’s deliveries, it’s back to the office to check on emails and complete paperwork. At the end of the day, Malcolm says he “goes home with the satisfaction of knowing I did my best”. That’s a feeling we should all strive for every day.

What’s the best part of his job? Malcolm says it’s the Customer Service/ Customer Interaction that he has every day. “My customers are my family away from home. My goal is to provide them with the type of service that I expect to receive when I go to a business.” It’s attitudes like this that make our driver’s the best in the business! Malcolm’s favorite FSI memory was the nicknames that they came up with for the Charleston Branch because all the drivers had been with the company for so many years.

Outside of work, he likes to spend time with his wife exploring places that they have never been to before. But, they also enjoy the occasions when there is nothing to do, and they can just relax. His favorite food is any good ol’ Southern Cooking, and his favorite movie is Smokey and the Bandit from 1977.

When asked if he had any special talents, he said “remembering numbers. I can remember phone numbers and address from when I was a kid”. Apparently he is also good at remembering dates since he can remember his exact hire date almost 15 years ago!
The wild card this week is what would your superpower power be? Malcolm said that would be X-Ray vision. That could come in handy as a delivery driver! You could see everything that was in the boxes you were delivering to make sure the order was correct.

~Macey Thomas
ECommerce/Marketing Assistant, FSIoffice

This week, our FSI highlight focuses on our very own Shirley Lockamy.  Shirley came to FSI in 1996 and was hired as the Event Planner for company meetings and consumer shows at our various branch locations.  During this time, Shirley also represented FSI and assisted our Sales Reps at customer organized conferences/vender shows.   This worked out to about 45 shows a year!  She said, “I was out of the office more than I was in it!”    In addition to all those shows, Shirley was also in charge of all of FSI’s Chamber of Commerce memberships, made all travel arrangements for FSI employees, scheduled for our new Product Specialists, coordinated sales support for the various organizational events FSI supported, filled all requests for door prizes for customer events, and facilitated our annual Charlotte Consumer Show.  Wow, talk about a full plate!

In 2004, FSI discontinued the shows at our branch locations, and with the end of “the traveling road show” as it was lovingly named around here, Shirley moved into her current role at FSI as the National Accounts Administrator for our AOPD accounts.  “This entails customer service on a national level with our customers and over 42 AOPD partner dealers.”  Shirley is also responsible for planning the DPCG Catalog Meetings with all the other DPCG members.  She facilitates the fall negotiations meeting in our Charlotte office and the spring Catalog Review Show in an offsite city.   She continues to maintain all of our Chamber of Commerce memberships and our involvement in their organizational events.  Shirley also serves as a vendor liaison for our annual Charlotte Consumer Show.

A typical day for Shirley consists of running reports to ensure that all orders are transmitted successfully to partner dealers, managing incoming orders from partner dealers, customer service duties related to AOPD accounts, justifying dealer invoices to our orders to bill our customers, maintain our master file of national accounts, and tracking scheduled events and various activities that our sales reps participate in and organizing their needed materials,

Shirley works out of her home in Myrtle Beach, SC (little bit jealous over here J), but was born in Bennettsville, SC.  She lived in Fort Mill, SC and then moved to Pineville, NC in 1957 where she lived until 2001 when she moved to Myrtle Beach with her husband, Will.   Their daughter and son-in-law have blessed them with 2 wonderful grandchildren, Jackson (7), and Isabella (6) who keep them young at heart!

When asked what her favorite FSI memory is, Shirley said, “I have many fond memories of my time at FSI, but the one that moves me the most is the company-wide prayer meeting that was conducted, during a business day, in 2005 when I found out my husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer. That was a very hard time for us, but his tumor was benign and we fully believe that God healed him.” 

Shirley said that her favorite parts of her job – she gets to have more than one since she does so much – is interacting with her counterparts in other parts of the country (and even a couple times in Canada!), the challenges presented in justifying dealer invoices to our orders, and the fellowship of her Christian coworkers and the support they offer.

Shirley is also very strong in her faith, and is very active in her church.  She is a part of an eight person Gospel music group, and they regularly visit area Senior Centers and during the holidays they perform at area events and shopping malls.  When asked if she could trade places with anyone for one day, she chose Billy Graham.    She said, “Just too briefly enjoy his wisdom and insight to God’s word would be a gift beyond measure. “

When she’s not working or performing with her group, Shirley loves to read, relax on the beach, and is hooked on the game Solitaire.  She is also hooked on SHOES and has an entire closet of her home just for her collection!  Her favorite food is “simply plain old cornbread”, and her favorite movie is The 10 Commandments.  She added that “when I get to Heaven I’ll be really disappointed if Moses doesn’t look like Charlton Heston”. 

The wild card this week is “What would you buy if you won the lottery?”  Shirley said that she and her husband have actually discussed this scenario, and they have decided that the first thing they would do is pay off their church’s debt.    What a great example of generosity!

~Macey Thomas

ECommerce/Marketing Assistant, FSIoffice