CEO of discount department store chain going ‘undercover’ on popular TV show

A CEO who took over family business when he was 27 years old is the next retailer to be spotlighted on the CBS television show, “Undercover Boss.”



Sam Dushey heads up Shoppers World, a family-owned and -operated full-line discount department store chain headquartered in New York City. In his 10-year stint as CEO, Dushey has grown the business from eight stores to 40 locations across 11 states and up to $250 million in annual retail sales. Dushey is now looking expand the company to 500 stores.



To follow Dushey’s challenges as the CEO who returned to his roots in roles he had held as a teenager, tune in to "Undercover Boss" on Sunday, Jan. 3 (8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. ET; 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. CT; 8 p.m. -9 p.m. PT) on CBS.



“Field intelligence is the best intelligence,” said Dushey. “'Undercover Boss' is the best way to hear first-hand from the employees in the stores. I could never replicate this experience on my own.”



While undercover, Dushey visited four Shoppers World stores: two in New York (Queens and Brooklyn); one in Cleveland, Ohio; and one in the Atlanta suburb of Morrow, Georgia.



The Brooklyn store on Pitkin Avenue featured in Dushey’s "Undercover Boss" episode started as a small corner store and later expanded to cover a full city block. The Morrow, Georgia, store is one of the company’s hottest markets, while the Cleveland, Ohio, location is another of the company’s high-performing stores. Dushey previously worked at the Queen’s store, which the Dushey family founded three generations ago.



“It was an eye-opening experience to observe the people behind the scenes who are running Shoppers World without them knowing it was me,” Dushey said. “Going undercover was the best opportunity to look myself in the mirror and see how I can improve as a leader and provide our employees with greater success and to give back to some of them for all their hard work.”



Now in its seventh season, "Undercover Boss" is a two-time Emmy Award-winning reality TV series that follows high-level executives as they slip anonymously into the rank and file of their own organizations.