Transitions. Those can be challenging, exciting, scary and difficult – all at the same time. They are also a part of life.
Ownership transitions can be especially challenging for businesses in small towns. Today we’ll meet the owners of a rural grocery store that has served its community for more than a century, and now has successfully made a transition to new ownership.
Fred and Vali Smith have been the longtime owners of Tipton Grocery. Tipton is in Mitchell County, southwest of Beloit.
Fred Smith’s grandparents farmed near Tipton. Fred lived here until he was five. “My dad was a state trooper and we were transferred all over Kansas,” Smith said. In the summers, Smith and his brothers would often come back to the farm.
Smith joined the Army and was stationed in Germany where he met and married Vali. They returned to the States where Fred worked in law enforcement in Chicago, and Vali was supervisor at a bank.
Fred and Vali made occasional trips back home with their kids to Tipton to see the family. During one of those times Mrs. Pfeiffer, the owner of the local grocery store, told them that they should stay and take over the store, but Fred and Vali both had good jobs in Chicago.
