A Family Tradition since 1968
When you ask Jim Tadych why he has been in the supermarket business for over 45 years, he will tell you it is because he loves people. Being able to fill the needs of his customers has been his passion from the beginning. That mind set has carried Jim from his first store in Brillion WI in July of 1968, to the newest acquisition of his store in Clintonville, WI.
It should come as no surprise Jim Tadych took to the grocery business.
His father, Victor, got into it as a teenager in the 1920’s and left school early for his first meat market job. That job led Victor to open Fairview Market in Manitowoc, WI: a small general store & market where Jim started packing potatoes when he was grade school age. He would work before and after school, that is when he and his brother Jerry were not throwing rotten potatoes at each other!
In the early 1960's, Jim took time away from his father’s family business to serve his country in the Army. Upon his return, he got married & started his family. Jim realized his father’s store could not adequately support the many family members now involved.
So, in the mid 60’s he began to search for a store to buy. The search proved difficult until 1968 when he found a small “mom & pop” grocery store in Brillion, WI. It was a turn of the century blacksmith shop converted into a grocery store with less than 700 square feet of space. For decades it was known as Doughty’s Grocery, although Keenway name remained on the building. You can find a picture of this store prominently displayed in every Tadych’s Econofoods.
Original owner, Francis Doughty had passed away and his wife Freida was ready to sell. However, she hadn’t realized Jim was a potential buyer. She thought he was applying for a job. She told him “we’re not hiring anymore.”
Ultimately, Freida sold the store to Jim. Both Victor and Freida helped finance the deal and further supported Jim by not calling in their loans during the early years.
The store served as a modest beginning for Jim. He, his wife Pat and their three kids lived above the store. In his first days of self employ, Jim asked himself more than once what he had gotten into.
Forty five years after T&C Market first opened its doors, Jim Tadych knows the answer to the question he asked himself in 1968. “I have gotten into, not only a business or career, but a way of life. A blessed life filled with many challenges. But those challenges are offset by the many great friends, employees & customers I get to work with every day.”
