![]() There are more than 600 stores altogether in 17 states.After 40 years at Four Winds International Market in Pensacola, James Tarabay sold the shop last year and retired. is the second-longest running family franchisee in the Piggly Wiggly chain, which is franchised by Keene, New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers. ![]() That way, just like our stores are, it's tailored to our market. It's a very modest franchise fee and they expect the store operators to be the ones to carry the brunt of promotion and advertising and marketing and those sorts of things, and that's the way we prefer it. "They take that same philosophy with how they operate the franchise. "The whole history of the company has been low overhead and that's how we're delivering lower prices," Milligan said of Piggly Wiggly's corporate oversight of franchise companies such as JTM. It also priced each item separately, began using refrigerated cases for produce, had employees wear uniforms, and emphasized lower prices through high-volume sales. That includes self-service where customers pluck items off shelves and take them to a checkout counter to pay. That's along the lines of the innovation Piggly Wiggly - famed for its smiling pig logo - is credited with as it helped modernize grocery retailing a century ago. It's most recent addition was the 2015 opening of its state-of-the-art Woodruff Farm Road store that features environmentally friendly cooling and refrigeration. has grown both in stores and employees, with it having nearly 1,000 on its payroll today, and with an eye toward adding supermarkets if the right opportunity arises, Milligan said. And he's proud of the company and what we've done and what the third generation is doing now as well." "He said very lately several times how proud he is that we're able to still compete against all the big boys and roll up our sleeves everyday. "I think he's always had that wish that he would love to see it continue to thrive," Milligan said of his father. ![]() Dad expressed pride recently amid JTM's 50th anniversary this summer and the approaching 100-year milestone for Piggly Wiggly. The son, who handles marketing, advertising, volume pricing and category management for the chain, agreed that his father is a good example of achieving the American dream. "But he still looks at the numbers and he's still our dad, so he's still the one that calls the shots if need be." "He's taking it easy," Mike Milligan said of his father, who opened that first location at age 32. Thus, the corporate headquarters was located there as well and remains today. ![]() It grew from there, with the supermarket in the Ladonia area of Phenix City being his fourth store, but the first in a shopping center that he had built. It was in 1966 that Tommy Milligan, after working with several stores in town, decided to venture on his own, opening his first grocery in the Baker Village area of south Columbus. "In every city that we operate, seven cities, each city's mayor is proclaiming it as Piggly Wiggly Day," said Milligan, noting the golden ticket promotion was created long before the recent passing of "Willy Wonka" movie star Gene Wilder. But it also has locations in LaGrange, Georgia Thomaston, Georgia Opelika, Alabama Lanett, Alabama and Eufaula, Alabama. Golden ticket recipients will be notified by managers, but they also can check online.Ĭolumbus and Phenix City is JTM's largest market, with 11 total stores. The winners were drawn out of the hundreds and hundreds of slips filled out at the local Piggly Wiggly stores in August by people participating in its regular "Moolahpalooza" promotion.
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