62 years of service is family’s legacy

RED BAY – When longtime resident Glen Vinson passed away recently, his children were well prepared to continue running the business that has been operated by the Vinson family for more than six decades.

Jason Vinson and Ashley Vinson Blackburn’s grandfather, Homer Vinson, started the business in 1963 when he and his wife, Ann, established the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Red Bay.

The original standalone grocery now operates partially as Piggly Wiggly and partially as Ace Hardware. In addition, the family expanded their operations to include combo stores in Belmont, Mississippi, and Iuka, Mississippi.

CONTRIBUTED/VINSON FAMILY

CONTRIBUTED/VINSON FAMILY

Both started working in the business while they were in college but worked some in the business while growing up.

“We’ve been here over 20 years straight in the family business,” Vinson said. “We’re the only two family members working the business now.”

Vinson said the addition of Ace Hardware is something their father helped get started for them. After the Ace Hardware store in Belmont went out of business, Jason and Ashley approached their father about the idea of combining the hardware store with their grocery store operation. Their father liked the idea.

After that, the family added an Ace Hardware component to its Iuka store and, finally, the Red Bay location as well.

“People can get things to fix up their houses and buy groceries and deli items all in the same place,” Vinson said. “It’s been very beneficial, a very good concept for our communities and for us.”

PHOTO BY MARÍA CAMP – Ashley Vinson Blackburn and Jason Vinson work in the produce section of the Red Bay Piggly Wiggly store.

ADJUSTMENTS

“My father had been in full-time retirement for about three years,” said Jason. “His last project he wanted to get done was adding on to the business in Red Bay. When we added Ace, he was going to retire around 2020 or 2021, but that project lasted longer because of COVID.”

Glen semi-retired in 2018. By that time, Vinson and Blackburn had already been in the process of taking over the decision making and planning day-to-day operations.

“When he left the business, we were already in that transition, so we were in a good position,” he added.

CHALLENGES

Even so, Vinson said there were aspects of the business they didn’t know “all the ins-and-outs of” at that point.

“He handled all our maintenance for all three stores for refrigeration, electrical, plumbing – we did pretty much all of our maintenance stuff – and he handled that for 50 years, right up until the last few years.”

Vinson said the business has faced challenges over the years, including Walmart adding a delivery service, but they do offer curbside pickup and have delivered to some people that really need it.

“That’s something we might look at down the road,” Vinson added, reiterating that being a community business involves more than just the transactions side of doing business. It’s also about being involved on a personal level and seeing people individually, not just as numbers.

“With a lot of the chain stores, people don’t take ownership because they don’t have ownership, and that’s the good thing about community businesses, not just ours. People in this town take pride in giving back to the community. We take pride in giving back and helping, and you don’t get that out of the big chains giving back to the people that make us successful and able to keep the doors open.”

DAD’S LEGACY

“He was definitely a hard worker,” Blackburn said of her father. “A lot of big shoes to fill for sure.”

Vinson said when he thinks of his father, he thinks of all the hard work he did, as well as how he always made sure to take care of people.

“Not just customers,” Vinson noted, “but also employees and people that have needs in the communities – trying to do things for people that are in need for whatever reason.”

Vinson said his father learned a lot after the death of their grandfather.

“Our grandfather died when he was 63, and so that pushed him and our aunt and uncle into fulltime ownership and management of everything at that point. They heard a lot of stories after he passed of how Homer had helped people, and nobody ever knew it publicly, just like what the Bible says to not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing, and that mindset carried on through Dad.”

Vinson said since their father’s passing, people have shared stories with them of how he helped them over the years.

“He loved the people in our communities, the people around us. He was always invested in helping people. This is a service business, that is, it’s not just about making money, but about serving people.”

Blackburn said their father believed in “hard work, integrity and taking care of people,” noting “he wanted everybody to be seen.”

“He knew every employee and customer on a first-name basis,” Blackburn explained, “and every time he saw them, he was checking up on the family he had learned about from previous talks and seeing how everyone was. He definitely wanted to put people first.”

“Both of us have stayed close to home and close to our family,” Blackburn said, “Our kids go to the local school. Both of us have helped with coaching, and Jason’s a member of the Red Bay City Council. We just try to promote our community. So many people leave, and somebody’s got to stay behind and keep things going and serve everybody.”

Vinson said their father never asked an employee to do anything he wasn’t capable of doing himself.

“We still have his work truck and tools – it was like a rolling maintenance truck, anything that was needed for fixing things at any of the stores, and we still use them.”

He said their father taught them the importance of doing a job right.

“Make sure it’s done correctly,” Vinson said, “and, of course, the main thing was always the two greatest commandments: To love Christ with everything you have and love your neighbors as yourself – and everything else will take care of itself.”