President & Chief Operating Officer, Pricesmart
Search every verified John Hildebrandt interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a July 2025 podcast for PriceSmart employees, President and COO John Hildebrandt discussed his career path and leadership philosophy. He described his progression from operations into roles covering member experience, real estate, logistics, merchandising, human resources, and B2B. Hildebrandt noted that he prefers a "subservient type leader" approach, learning from others' expertise, and said that "great employee experiences generate great customer experiences." He identified his most enjoyable expatriate assignment as Costa Rica, citing its climate and the friendships he made there. Hildebrandt offered several observations on retail and management. He stated that "retail is a human capital heavy business" and that those who do not enjoy working with people are "in the wrong business." He emphasized the importance of integrity, describing it as "doing the right thing when no one's looking." On risk-taking, he said that if a buyer is not making mistakes, "they're not doing their job," and added that "it's a lot easier to admit your mistake than to try to cover up your mistake." He also noted that because PriceSmart asks members to pay to shop, "the expectations are a lot higher."
“I like to be more of a subservient type leader. I need to learn from them their business and then how can I help them. So coming into this new role, there was a lot of areas I had never had any experience in.”
“I've really learned the importance of logistics, what it really means to our members in the form of the lowest possible price.”
“Integrity means doing the right thing when no one's looking. It's easy to walk by something, maybe a piece of trash on the floor and no one's going to notice, you don't pick it up. But picking up that piece of trash when no one's expecting you to do that says a lot about somebody.”
“If a buyer isn't making mistakes, the buyer isn't buying some bad items occasionally. They're not doing their job. It's important to understand that mistakes are going to happen and we learn from them.”
“It's a lot easier to admit your mistake than to try to cover up your mistake. Covering up the mistake is usually worse than the mistake itself.”
“We ask people to pay to shop at our environment. So the expectations are a lot higher and that experience, our expectations of that experience have to be higher.”
“Great employee experiences generate great customer experiences.”
“I like to identify the diamond in the rough—that person who seems to want to go the extra mile, not necessarily the one who works the longest hours, but the one who's trying a little bit harder and trying to figure out a problem.”
“If you don't enjoy working with people, helping people, teaching people, you're in the wrong business. Retail is a human capital heavy business.”
“Work is important, but your life balance and time with family and loved ones is critical as well.”
During this conversation, John Hildebrandt, our President and Chief Operating Officer, shares his journey from humble beginnings ...
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