[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 23069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING JACK C. SMITH AND FOOD CITY'S 50 YEARS OF BUSINESS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM L. JENKINS

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 18, 2005

  Mr. JENKINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the contributions of 
a man who has made a significant presence on the business landscape of 
Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. In 1954, Jack C. Smith made a 
decision to get into the grocery business in his hometown of Grundy, 
Virginia. It is a simple story of a man at the age of 29 who saw a need 
for his community, worked with his family to find the necessary startup 
capital, and started a grocery store that has not only survived, but 
thrived and has become a fixture in the region. The following excerpt 
from the book The Grocer and his Dream--The Story of Jack Smith and 
KVAT Foods tells the story:

       Jack Curtis Smith was born August 21, 1925 in Grundy, VA, 
     deep in the coal mining region of Buchanan County. He was the 
     only child of Curtis and Elizabeth Belcher Smith.
       The nation was on the verge of World War II when Jack 
     graduated from Grundy High School in 1942 and set his sights 
     on a military career. Specifically, he wanted to be in the 
     Navy and he wanted to become an officer.
       On Flag Day, June 14, 1944, Jack Smith was sworn in as a 
     midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. 
     Jack graduated in June, 1947 as an electrical engineer.
       Jack and Judy Smith were married in a formal military 
     ceremony at the Naval Academy Chapel, September 20, 1947. 
     ``We had the crossed swords, everything,'' Jack recalls.
       In Spring, 1954, Jack Smith was back in his picturesque 
     hometown of Grundy, VA after 10 years in the Navy. Jack and 
     his young family had just finished an exhausting trek from 
     California to the mountains of southwest Virginia where he 
     expected to help his cousin Ernest Smith open several new Ben 
     Franklin variety stores.
       ``When I got back to Grundy I went to see my cousin Ernest 
     and said, ``Well, I'm ready to go to work,'' Jack explains. 
     ``Then Ernest told me he didn't think his planned expansion 
     was going to work out.''
       Ernest Smith had operated a successful Ben Franklin store 
     in Grundy for several years and was in the market to purchase 
     several additional stores in the area. The deal, however, 
     didn't pan out and Jack Smith suddenly found himself with a 
     wife, two young daughters and no job.
       ``As luck would have it, mother sent me to the store one 
     day. It was just a little A&P with two checkouts and one of 
     those never opened. I got the groceries I needed, and then 
     had to stand in line for 45 minutes. I got back home and told 
     my family, `I think I've found me something to do. What this 
     town needs is a good supermarket.'''
       The idea was sound. Grundy did, indeed, need a good 
     supermarket. The question was how Jack could pull it off.
       He talked with his father, Curtis Smith, a successful local 
     businessman; his uncle Earl Smith, who was Buchanan County 
     treasurer; and his cousin Ernest and they agreed that opening 
     a modern supermarket in Grundy made a lot of sense from a 
     business standpoint.
       Earl Smith put up some land he owned as his part of the 
     deal and the other three agreed to borrow $60,000 each to 
     match the value of the land. Thus the original four 
     stockholders of the budding grocery business were Jack Smith, 
     his father, Curtis; his uncle, Earl Smith; and his cousin, 
     Ernest.
       ``So, here I am, 29 years old. I don't know a thing about 
     the grocery business and we've all borrowed money to open a 
     supermarket that I don't know a thing about running,'' Jack 
     says.
       ``Course, Ernest was thinking all the time,'' Jack 
     continues. ``He's heard of a company called Piggly Wiggly 
     because there were Piggly Wiggly stores all around southwest 
     Virginia. So he contacted the Piggly Wiggly Corporation while 
     we started ground preparation on our store site. In a few 
     days two representatives from Piggly Wiggly, field 
     representative George Fox and Tommy Thompson, vice president 
     in charge of the Piggly Wiggly factory that made store 
     fixtures, came to Grundy and we showed them what we had in 
     mind.''
       ``They said, `This looks good. It looks real good. Now what 
     we need is to have you fellows come down to our factory in 
     Jackson, Tennessee and we'll design you a store.'''
       The partners quickly hammered out a franchise agreement 
     with Piggly Wiggly and the grocery chain's design division 
     laid out the new supermarket and supplied the fixtures. ``Our 
     fixtures were a little different,'' Jack recalls. ``Everyone 
     else had white in those days but ours were color coded for 
     different departments. I had the most beautiful store anybody 
     ever saw.''
       The Grundy Piggly Wiggly, with 8,800 square feet of space, 
     opened for business on November 17, 1955. It was located on 
     Route 83 North.
       Although he had never dreamed of becoming a grocer, Jack 
     Smith was now in the grocery business, an enterprise that 
     would consume his energies for the next half century.

  Mr. Speaker, KVAT Food Stores, Inc. will soon be opening its 92nd 
store in Vansant, Virginia. The date of the opening will be November 
17, 2005, 50 years to the day of the opening of its store in Grundy. 
With 92 stores in Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and Northeast 
Tennessee, the KVAT stores, operating under the name Food City, are 
pillars of their local communities. In addition, their success has been 
shared back with the communities they serve. Food City is well known 
with its programs like Apples for the Students, in which the company 
has donated over seven million dollars in equipment to schools in their 
three state service region. In addition, Food City also partners with 
farmers in Southwest VA and Northeast TN to bring local produce to its 
customers which helps local farmers and satisfies customer demand.
  Finally, Food City shares its success with its employees. In fact, 
the company now has 16 percent of its ownership held by its associates, 
a number expected to continually rise with its profit sharing plans.
  KVAT and Food City deserve recognition at their 50 years of service 
and success, and I know that the congressional delegation of this 
region join me in honoring the vision of Jack Smith and celebrating all 
of those who have worked so hard to see its success over the last 50 
years.

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