Lynchburg grocer keeps entrepreneurial spirit

It was a lack of familiarity with advanced mathematics, Ralph King recalls, that derailed him from his first career choice of engineering.

But it was basic math — addition and subtraction, profit and loss — that enticed him down another road.

“My first job out of the University of Virginia was working as a bookkeeper for a refrigeration company in Richmond,” said King, who opened a new Ralph’s Green Grocer store on Lakeside Drive this week, “and I also worked at Colonial Stores part time. When I saw all the money they were making, it made me want to go into the grocery business myself.”

The youngest of eight children, King grew up in Patrick County.

“My father didn’t have the money to send me to college,” he said, “so I went into the Army and took part in the Inchon invasion of Korea at the age of 18.”

His reward was his tuition to UVa on the GI Bill.

“It took me five years to go through,” he said, “but I made it.”

King bought his first grocery store in Appomattox in 1962, on the site of the current Wilburn’s. The sec-ond was in Brookneal, the third in Altavista.

“After that, I bought three Piggly Wiggly stores, two of them in Lynchburg,” he said, “and I just kept adding on.”

At the height of King’s mini-empire, he owned 29 King’s Supermarkets across the midsection of the commonwealth.

“I had a payroll of $50,000 every two weeks,” he said, “and 700 employees. The secret is having good staff working for you.”

That, and carpet.

“I was the first chain east of the Mississippi to put carpet down in some of the stores,” he said. “It’s funny, but people really liked that. They talked about it. It’s a little more maintenance, but I felt like it was worth it.”

In 1982, King sold out to Food World and quickly became restless.

“I wanted to go back into it,” he said, “but they had tied me up with a non-competition clause, so I went into the produce business.”

Always on the lookout for a fresh opportunity, King shut down his Green Grocer outlets several years ago to open a barbecue restaurant in Wyndhurst. That didn’t work out, so he’s back to produce. His Lake-side store opened Monday morning, and he was working alone, surrounded by bins of tomatoes, oranges, bananas and vegetables.

“I’m going to open a couple more of these,” he said.

At 77, King has no immediate plans to retire.

“One of the problems I’ve always had,” he said, “is that I don’t think I can be defeated.”

The implication was clear — retirement, at least of the old-fashioned rocking chair, fishing hole variety, would be considered a defeat.

“I’ve done well for myself over the years,” King said. “I’ve owned condominiums, boats and a race horse. About the only thing I haven’t owned is an airplane.

“I thought about buying one of them once, but my bookkeeper told me: “If you do that, you’re going to kill yourself. I listened to him.”