Gary’s Foods has more than 33 years of experience leaving this March, when Al Pearson and Denise Krogh both retire.
Pearson, a 1983 graduate of Mount Vernon High School, has been working at Gary’s for more than 27 years.
“A lot of people tell me that coming to Gary’s won’t be the same without me here,” Pearson said. “I’ve made friends with a lot of customers over the years.”
Pearson has worked as a grocery clerk for the store for more than 27 years – helping to stock shelves, helping customers with carry out to their vehicles and other duties throughout the store.
Through wind, snow and ice, Pearson is definitely one of the employees who helps customers get their groceries packed in vehicles.
“I know the derecho in 2020 was a challenging time for us, as was the ice storm that hit the area in 2007,” Pearson said. “I was lucky to get home safely before telephone poles started falling during that storm.”
Pearson said he has met and helped train a lot of kids on how to bag groceries and handle groceries to customer’s cars over the years, some of them even the kids of fellow classmates.
Pearson knows he will definitely be spending more time with his dachshund Buster, who will be celebrating his fourth birthday this March. Pearson remembers when he was adopting this dachshund, a community effort helped pay for that dog for him.
He also plans to spend more time helping his mom and dad, both in their 80s, and tackling some of the things they shouldn’t be doing on their own. He’ll also spend more time with his grandchild and at the car races in Tipton, West Liberty, Knoxville and Farley.
“That’s one of the things that Al shared with some of the employees at Gary’s, was his love of racing, inviting some of us to go to the tracks with him,” said Garret Dietrich.
“That, and his mom’s cookies,” said Denny Dietrich. “Those are some of the best cookies.”
Pearson said that working at Gary’s became like a second home to him, and he is definitely going to miss many of his coworkers.
He was retiring from the position as grocery clerk due to health issues flaring up, especially () in his hands and feet over the past few years.
Krogh has been working at Gary’s for a little more than six years now as part of the 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift.
“That’s the one thing I’m not going to miss, is setting an alarm clock for earlier than 6 a.m. every morning,” Krogh said.
Prior to working at Gary’s, she did stints at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (17 years) and at Sam’s Main Street Market in Solon.
Like Pearson, what she will definitely miss the most is the customers.
She said she was choosing to retire because her husband had recently retired, and having more time to spend together on day trips, fishing and other vacations was something she was looking forward to.
She also has five grandchildren and three children she will be spending her time with.
Denny said he will definitely miss the early morning conversations he has with Krogh every day.
“We’re both some of the first ones here in the morning, so we have conversations on all range of topics as we’re getting the store ready for customers each morning,” Denny said.
Pearson’s last day at Gary’s was March 4. Krogh’s last day is Thursday, March 16.
Gary’s has two retiring faces
March 9, 2023
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.