Why did Yosef personally sell the food?

We learn that Yosef was the second in command to Pharaoh in Parshat Miketz, Breisheet 41:41:

Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Behold, I have placed you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.”

In Breisheet 42:6 we read:

Yosef was the ruler (shalit) over the land; he was one who sold (mashbir) to all of the people of the land.

If Yosef was such an important person, then why was he personally selling the food?

According to Midrash Sechel Tov, Yosef figured that his brothers would eventually come to Egypt so he made an arrangement that each person who came to buy food had to write down his name and his father’s name. Yosef’s son, Menashe would take the lists and show them to his father.

This is how Yosef knew when his brothers came to town and this is why he personally was the one to sell them their food.

Radak’s opinion is that Yosef did not actually do the selling. Rather, he was in charge of approving the sales. He told his workers how much to sell and who to sell to.

Sforno states that Yosef didn’t trust any of the Egyptians. He didn’t want to take a chance of losing some of the profits so he was personally involved in receiving the payments for the grain as we see in Parshat Vayigash, Breisheet 47:14:

Yosef gathered up all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of C’naan, in payment for the provisions they purchased. Yosef brought the money to the house of Pharaoh.

We see from the above commentaries that Yosef had a few reasons for being personally involved in the sales- He didn’t want to miss his brothers and he wanted to make sure that his workers didn’t steal any of the money or sell too much to one customer, not leaving enough for everyone else.

We can learn from Yosef how important it is for those who are higher up in companies to still engage with the everyday customers as well as keep a good eye of the profits.