By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Atlas Twp. —A long-time local businessman recently shared his knowledge of American business with a student from the United Kingdom.
William McCully, 16, is the son of Ryan and Karen McCully and a family member of Atlas Township residents Patrica and Pat Major. McCully is a resident of Sevenoaks, England about 30 miles south of London. He attends Skinners Grammar School for higher achieving students with about two years remaining prior to graduation.
The school requires McCully and other students to engage in on the job work experience during the summer. The study overseas in America is not part of the assignment, however, provided that Major has a thriving local business and could share some of his extensive experience, McCully took the opportunity visit prior to the start of classes.
The education on American business started with a tour of Detroit.
“It was not what I had expected,” said McCully. “My expectation was that Detroit was not the nicest city, and people were leaving. But I really enjoyed the tour and Detroit was a really nice place to live and do business.”
Pat owns Major Distributing, a provider of wholesale food products.
McCully studied how grocery stores operate behind the scenes, including setting up shelves, rotation of products, presentation of items, product image and warehouses.
Major said the week-long study also include supply streams and at the end of the week accounting systems, as well as computer supported inventory.
“It’s good to learn how these aspects of business run,” said McCully. “From actual business owners that run the entire operation. Start to finish.”
McCully visited  a variety of retail stores in the United States, including Sam’s Club.
“The stores here are much larger than you get in England and are in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “We have our supermarkets in concentrated areas, it’s more compact. This area is very spread out.”
McCully learned the warehouse-retail system.
“They sold a larger variety of items,” he said. “You would not sell TVs and food in the same place (UK). It’s odd but a good system in that you don’t have to travel far to get products.”
McCully also recognized Americans drive everywhere.
“You all like driving,” he said. “I walk to a train station, that’s how I get to school everyday.’