Tommy couldn’t wait to go to work every day. He was only 15 years old, but already had an excellent work ethic and took great satisfaction in doing the job right. Bagging groceries didn’t even seem like work to him when he got to talk to the customers, who were mostly friends anyway.

It made no difference that Tommy’s father worked as a manager at the grocery store in Mobile. He was still paid $1.25 an hour and treated like every other employee.

One day, a supervisor instructed Tommy to go get the “shelf stretcher.” Always the hard worker and wanting to please his boss, Tommy searched the back room, then went from store to store throughout Mobile looking for the shelf stretcher, only to discover at the end of the day there was no such tool, and he had been “had.”

As Tommy grew older, an uncle offered to send him to engineering school, but he declined the generous offer, knowing that he had already landed in the industry that interested him most — the grocery business.

“I realized that to go to college I would have to stop working and wouldn’t be making money anymore,” he says with a smirk. “And girls liked money, so … I kept working.”

As the years passed, Tommy learned every detail of the grocery business, and when his father bought a grocery store, Tommy became the store manager at only 21 years old.

Eventually, he was able to buy his own small grocery store in Loxley on the condition that he moved his family to the small Baldwin County town.

“The seller wanted to make sure that I was truly part of the community, and that turned out to be a great idea,” Tommy says, “It now means a lot to me that I know the customers and learn what they need.”

Keeping this close relationship with the community is what has motivated Tommy Cain to stay involved with his customers.

“They aren’t just people who shop in my stores; they are my neighbors, fellow church members and friends,” he says. “I see these people at local ball games, and our children have grown up together. I always want to give them the best food for the best prices. It’s just what neighbors do.”

It’s no surprise to his friends that Tommy Cain has grown up to own six of his own grocery stores throughout Mobile and Baldwin counties and Okaloosa County, Fla. Cain’s Piggly Wiggly stores are popular not only as a place to purchase food, but also for meeting your friends. The employees have a “five feet rule” that reminds them to always speak to customers if anyone is within five feet of them, so it’s never difficult to locate what you need.

“Mr. Cain is a fair employer and takes care of his people,” says Jean Patterson, who has known the Cain family for several years and now works in the Fairhope Piggly Wiggly. “He is the only employer I’ve ever had that takes care of the community first and not himself.”

Jean also added that it isn’t unusual to see both Tommy and his wife Sharon bagging groceries on Christmas Eve.

“They do whatever it takes to help the employees and customers have a good experience in the store,” she says.

A new feature in Cain’s Piggly Wiggly stores involves technology.

“We’ve just added a new feature where customers can give us their text or email information, and we will send updates on the latest specials and coupons,” Cain says. However, the basics of the industry remain unchanged.

“Over the four decades of experience, we know people still want fresh products, friendly service and low prices,” he says.

Tommy Cain continues to give the Gulf Coast all of those things, while still searching for that elusive shelf stretcher.

Leslie Anne Harrison also contributes to the blog, “Fairhope Supply Co. www.fairhopesupply.com .