Community Icon, Piggly Wiggly,
Set to Close May 30th

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

Weekend shoppers at the local Piggly Wiggly Store, at 445 Main Street, in Sulphur Springs, learned that the store will be closed on May 30th, 2009. The store which was originally opened in the 1950's by R.L. Clapp, has served as a community grocery store for over half a century. It originally opened in a building on North Davis Street and Mr. Clapp moved the business to its present location in the late 1950's. "It's just always been a part of Sulphur Springs," bemoaned one shopper. "My family has shopped for our groceries here, for generations!"

According to Store Manager, Bob McClure, employees of the store learned last week, that their parent company, Affiliated Foods, has filed for bankruptcy and that the store would be closing. "It could possibly be bought by someone else, but we've been ordered to liquidate the merchandise and began a sale with 30% off the goods," stated McClure. "We're just operating under directives from the parent company in Little Rock, Arkansas!"

"There will be twenty-five local employees affected by the store closure," continued McClure. "This will have a heavy impact on the local community!"

"I worked in the meat market from 1970 until 1979," related Mary Gamblin. "Of course, everyone in the entire Sulphur Springs Community knew Warren Brewer, Meat Market Manager, and came into the store to purchase their meats! It's just so sad that the store is closing. It's been a part of this community for so, so many years! There are people all over town that have never bought their groceries anywhere else!"

"I guess it is just the signs of the times," expressed Marlin Jones, Jr., Real Estate Agent with Century-21 Hometown. "I worked there back in 1966-68, as a stockboy under the high school Distributive Education Club. The store back then employed about 54 people and many were high school and college students, that they worked around our schedules so that we could have a job! I began working there in high school for $1.00 an hour and thought I was in 'high cotton' when I was in college and made up to $2.00 an hour. That money made car payments and allowed many of us to have all the things teenagers wanted back in the 1960's. I can remember Billy Mack Chamness, Gene Dixon, Mike Crain, Mike Richey, Ronnie Wyatt, Frank Wright, Jr., Steve Shing, and many other of my high school and college friends working with me in the store!"

 

 

Johnny Rushin, began his career with Piggly Wiggly in 1964, as a high school student, and worked there until he went into the military service in 1966. "I came back to Sulphur Springs in 1968 and went to work as an Assistant Manger at the store, beneath manager Ray Moss," remembered Rushin. "Then, in 1980, I was made store manager and kept that position until leaving in 1983. "It was a 'family' type atmosphere. There were brothers and sisters that worked in the store. My sister, Winona worked there when I did and I can remember Tommy, Johnny, and Cathy Cross all working there during their high school years, as well as several of the children in the Shing family, Steve, Richard, and Mary."

 

 

"I'm 93 years old and I started to work for the store on April 2, 1962," remembered Helen Rawlinson. "I worked in the Meat Market with Warren Brewer, until 1981. It was an atmosphere that we saw the same people come in weekly to buy their groceries and they were just like members of our families. We knew what they liked to eat and we had it ready for them!"

Some of the store managers mentioned by those working there included: Mr. Clapp; Ray Moss, Alvin Verner,  Johnny Rushin, and Bob Kirkpatrick.

The store was sold to a group from Denton, by Mr. Clapp, in 1976, but has continued to be a vital part of the "heart" of Sulphur Springs.

"I hope someone will purchase the store and continue to operate it," expressed a shopper on Monday morning. "I wouldn't know how to buy groceries anywhere else!"

 

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