Since 1911, Sheboygan, Wisconsin has been the home to Piggly Wiggly Midwest’s headquarters where it has its corporate offices and two of its distribution centers. Piggly Wiggly Midwest operates corporate stores and services independent franchisees under a chain-style program. C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., BB #:137315 an industry leader in supply chain solutions and wholesale grocery supply in the United States, has entered into a definitive agreement with Piggly Wiggly Midwest BB #:105437 with the intent to purchase the Wisconsin-based wholesaler. “I think we’ll be fine because of where we are and what we do, but it’s just another store nipping at your heels.JKeene, N.H.
“One thing that’s constant in this industry is it’s always changing,” he said. He expects stiff competition from Meijer in both Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties in the coming years, though it’s nothing he hasn’t been through before. “You don’t want to get complacent and get to a place where you say, 'We’re there, we’ve arrived.'”įox said that overall, the industry has been flat in recent years, and his stores are no different, though his Two Rivers location posted solid growth in 2015, thanks to a just-completed remodeling project. Now, the older I’ve gotten, the more I realize I’m still learning stuff, and with that perspective, that way, you’re always striving to improve,” he said. “When I was 25 years old, I probably thought I knew it all. The stores also continue to change with the times, carrying more organic products, prepared foods, produce and deli items.įox says he manages his stores with the mindset that there’s always room to improve. “We say, 'try to be fresh, friendly and close to home.' In other words, the location is good and important,” he said. That tends to draw more frequent, albeit smaller, shopping trips from customers, and it allows his employees to become familiar with them. The stores also tend to be smaller - the Plymouth store is the largest at 38,000 square feet - so customers can get in and out quicker.
His three stores remain competitive in part by being closer to residential neighborhoods, rather than the high-traffic sites near Interstate 43, where most retail development is now centralized. It’s a rewarding, but a tough, business to be in.” “Years ago, there was a Pick ‘n Save and Piggly Wiggly, and that was pretty much it,” he said. The addition of a new store comes as competition in the grocery industry continues to build, with plans by Meijer to open stores in both Sheboygan and Manitowoc in the coming years.įox said heightened competition is easily the biggest change he’s seen in his years in the industry, whether it's from direct competitors, such as Festival Foods and Walmart, or indirect ones, including Kwik Trip and Menards. Other than a short stint at a Piggly Wiggly supplier, he’s spent his entire career at the company and its franchises, attending an accelerated supervisory management program at Lakeshore Technical College along the way.
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In some ways, buying the Plymouth store brought Fox’s career back full circle, as he’d trained to become a store manager there 20 years ago while moving up the ranks of the Sheboygan-based grocery chain. Piggly Wiggly Midwest, which has about 100 Piggly Wiggly and Butera Market locations, approached Fox about buying the store based on his ties to the Sheboygan area. He also owns franchises in Two Rivers, which he bought in 2005, and Manitowoc, which he acquired in 2011. That drove it,” said Fox, who now lives in Two Rivers.įox took over his third store, in Plymouth, in early January, after purchasing it from longtime owners Jim Wieser and Kevin Mey. “The people in this industry are all great people, and when you’re in retail, you’re interacting with people at all times, so I just enjoyed that. Today, the 47-year-old is the proud owner of three Piggly Wiggly stores, and while he can’t pinpoint when it happened, somewhere along the way, the sociable, outgoing Fox came to find his niche in an industry that requires daily interaction with people. “As a kid, you’re kind of like, it’s a job, but as I hit 18 and 19.
His father had done the same thing as a teenager and went on to work at the grocer’s corporate office, while two of his uncles opened several Piggly Wiggly stores in the Milwaukee area.īut at the time, the teen saw it as just another job. Bob Fox’s three-decade career at Piggly Wiggly began at age 16 when he took a job bagging groceries at the chain’s store, since closed, on Wilson Avenue on Sheboygans’ south side.
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