Food for thought
Story by JOHN CLAYTON
Phillips Family IGA has served the community for six decades
M
uch has changed in the 60 years that Phillips Family IGA has served Hiseville and the surrounding communities. The family-owned grocery recently tripled in size, joined the Independent Grocers Association and added a website and mobile app to allow customers to log in, make lists and place pickup orders from home. But the quality foods and customer service have remained the same since Clyde and Helen Phillips opened the store in 1960. “We knew that if we had to compete against the big boys with the supercenters and their buying power, we had to make improvements,” says Mike Phillips, who bought the store from another family member in 1999. “We had to expand our inventory and try to keep people from driving 10 or 12 miles to another town. We had to expand and start offering people everything that they can go to a big store and get.”
GROCERY GROWTH Since Phillips took over the store, it has grown physically and with its expanded list of services. A renovation converted what was a 3,000-square-foot, smalltown, family market into a building featuring 10,000 square feet of shopping area. In addition to an in-store butcher shop where employees still cut meats to order, the store also features a deli and photo center. 8 | November/December 2020
“Our No. 1 draw is our meat department,” Phillips says. “A lot of big stores are doing away with local butchers. Their meat comes prepackaged. We cut our meats fresh every day.” The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are busy times for the store, especially its meat department, which sells Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas hams. “We have tons of country hams, and our rib-eyes are our primary sellers at Christmastime,” says Phillips, whose son, Trevor, is the store manager. “Those items and turkeys are our big, major items we do at Christmas. For a lot of people, they couldn’t get them somewhere else, so our butcher shop is really important. We have a reputation that goes all the way back to when it was started in 1960, and that reputation speaks for itself.” But 60 years after opening, a reputation could only take the store so far. Becoming the 62nd store in IGA’s Nashville Division was one important step toward growth. Enlarging its footprint on East Main Street was another. The Phillips family continues to invest in updates, including new floors and lighting that give the store a combination of rustic charm and modern amenities. “We want to be a family market that people know cares for their family,” Trevor Phillips says. So when COVID-19 hit, he began looking for ways to better serve customers, particularly those who are older.
He initiated curbside pickups and the capability to order online and by phone. Store employees then gather the goods. “We wanted people to feel safe when they come here,” he says. “Maybe they’re elderly and a little scared to come into the store, so we’re able to get their grocery list gathered and bring it curbside to them.” Curbside pickup and remote ordering are expected to last beyond the pandemic as management focuses on offering the best shopping experience possible, including the ability to redeem digital coupons. It’s just part of being a family-owned grocery in a business large corporations and big-box stores often dominate in the 21st century.
Prime rib is a popular alternative for the holidays.
South Central Rural Telecommunications Cooperative
