For locals who have been here for some time, it’s a little hard to wrap our heads around the idea of Coligny’s Piggly Wiggly being a business. On a certain intellectual level, of course, we understand that there must be somebody in charge back there. All these employees aren’t just showing up on their own.
But The Pig exists on a kind of storied plane where you almost start to view it as a fixture rather than a business. It would be like finding out that the ocean had a general manager, or that one of the alligators was in charge of running payroll for the rest of them.
David Martin would more than likely sympathize with that point of view. As the long-running owner of Piggly Wiggly, like his father, Gene, before him, he definitely views Piggly Wiggly as a business. But he also sees it as one that goes beyond dollars and cents, beyond profit and loss, to an island institution with a grander purpose.
The first purpose is as a vital part of the community. Going back to the days when his father ran The Pig, the family has always been generous with their time and willing to give whenever possible.
“Miss Charlotte, who started Deep Well, would come in with a need and he donated more money than he ever had, really. So that was just kind of to set the tone,” Martin said. “And I think that was in his heart, and I think it’s in my heart to give. I don’t even think about it as giving.”
It isn’t just idle talk, either. As he spoke with C2 for this piece, one of his employees, Tyrone, was busily packing up produce to be distributed to area children through Backpack Buddies. Later, another shipment of goods would go out to Sandalwood Community Food Pantry.
“I just think about it as the right thing to do,” Martin said. “Plus it’s fun, and I get back so much more than I ever give. We’re able to help the community.”
Part of that spirit was ingrained in Martin from a young age, a byproduct of his dad’s inherent generosity with anyone who walked through his door. Beyond helping out Miss Charlotte whenever she needed anything, Gene famously extended credit to any and all who needed it when the island had its infamous brush with insolvency back in the ’80s.
Dave Martin jokes around with Preston, the Meat Man at Piggly Wiggly.
That generous spirit has obviously carried on under the younger Martin’s tenure running The Pig, and if anything, it has been honed to a finer point, thanks to his own struggles with sobriety, having been in recovery since 1987.
“That has left me on a spiritual journey that I would not be on if I had not gotten into trouble back then,” he said. “It fuels everything. Because when you pursue spiritual things, whether it’s religion or church or otherwise, you learn that you can only keep what you have by giving it away. If you’re going to hold onto stuff, you’re going to wilt. In recovery, you help others all the time. You always say ‘yes’ when somebody asks you to do something. So, in my business life, it’s always been yes.”
That spirit of giving, forged by his father and refined by his own trials, has remained, even as the community around The Pig has changed somewhat over the past 60 years. But even as long-term residences gave way to short-term rentals, the store has remained ever-present, shifting to serve a loyal crowd of both locals and visitors.
“There are a lot of my friends from high school who left and when they come back to visit, they ask why I stayed here all this time. But really, the world came to see us. And we’ve been here long enough to see them come back again and again. Plus, this is a small town which I enjoy tremendously,” he said. “It’s never really felt like a challenge to stay, because it just feels so natural.”
That sense of small-town togetherness helped shape The Pig almost as much as Martin himself has. When he first took the store over from his father, he produced a 43-page notebook of ideas that he had for the next chapter. Ranging from small tweaks to endcap placement to broader strokes, like adding beach gear and bringing in new vendors and distributors, it immediately proved that he had the business savvy to carry the store into the future.
The most visual change he made, and one that has allowed our local Piggly Wiggly’s renown to go far beyond our shores, is the addition of the massive selection of T-shirts.
Martin and Maya Woodhouse, T-shirt stylist, who has been with Piggly Wiggly for three years.
“We started the T-shirt business because my daughter, who was 14 at the time, told me she could design shirts for us,” he said. “She still does that today. She has a very successful career and still makes our T-Shirts as a side gig.”
With his family by his side, and 43 pages of gangbuster ideas, Martin brought the store his father built into the next generation, completely redefining what the store could be while maintaining its inimitable spirit.
“I made a lot of changes over about a year and a half, and then profit soared after that, so I knew I was on the right path. But it changes every day,” he said. “My minister really saved me because he’s the one who told me to write all that down in a book. He said, ‘One day you’ll need it,’ and sure enough I did.”
Gene and Dave Martin by the Pig’s now famous signage.
One thing that he made sure to keep is the local focus that has always defined Piggly Wiggly. Even as he’s running the show, Martin is in the trenches of the store he loves, greeting customers and helping his team in any way he can.
“For us it really is about a team, and it just makes it so much easier. I have store owners in our group who have 14 stores and never go to their stores. That is not my style … I’ve always just been in the store. For me, it’s just the fun of being part of the day-to-day,” he said. “It’s because of this team. You have my store manager, Liz, who has been working for me since she was 14 … and Tyrone, who’s been here since he was in high school. I really believe in investing in my people. When you spend as much time at work as we do, you’d better enjoy them because otherwise it will eat your lunch.”
He’ll be the first to tell you, though, that he gets just as much out of his employees as they get out of him. Being a grocery store in any other town, you can expect a certain consistent customer base all year long. Being the only grocery store at the nexus of Coligny and Forest Beach, two neighborhoods that swell to bursting for three months out of the year, requires a different approach to hiring – and a lot of teenagers.
Kayla, Dave, Austin and Gene Martin at the store’s 50 year anniversary in 2019.
“With their schedules, there are a lot of moving parts, so it really is challenging. But it’s also really inspirational to watch these kids grow up. I’ve been to their weddings. I was the preacher at a wedding for people who worked for me,” he said. Plus, their youthful energy keeps him young. “I probably never really get bored.”
That local focus extends beyond the employees. Wander the aisles of the store and you’ll find locally produced dry goods and produce, and you can stop by the seafood counter for fare that comes right from the dock. “Some of these relationships we’ve had for 40 years. My account number with Braswell’s, for example, is three digits. I called them the other day and gave them my digits and they asked, ‘Are you sure that’s all of it?’ And our fish department sources locally every day. It’s harder work, but everybody seems to embrace it.”
Gene Martin famously extended credit to any and all who needed it when the island had its infamous brush with insolvency back in the ’80s
Everybody embraces it, not just because it’s local. They embrace it because of the community spirit Piggly Wiggly represents, the role it plays in our lives here, and the people who make it all possible, brought together by Martin.
“I don’t have much. Being humble and trying to do the next right thing is easy if you just get up and do the right thing,” he said. “You never question it.”