HENNESSEY—John Taylor was working for Bill’s IGA in Kingfisher in 1963 when one of the locally owned grocery stores in downtown Hennessey went up for sale. He and his boss Bill Pool were set to partner and purchase it when Pool backed out.
“I moved forward anyway,” John said, buying out the Rickley family and renaming the store 4T’s IGA.
He, his wife Bonnie, and their four young children—the 4T’s: Tammy, Tim, Terry, and Tracy—relocated that summer to the rural Kingfisher County community of 2,000 residents and began serving the food needs of the town two doors down from the post office on Hennessey’s Main Street.
Not only did John butcher meat and stock shelves, but he also swept and mopped the floors too.
Ironically, nearly 30 years later, 4T’s purchased Bill’s IGA and operated it for eight years.
Offering hometown service
Growing up in Hennessey and coming back to Hennessey after college to raise his family and work for his dad meant a great deal to Tim.
“Being in my hometown is the best reward,” he said. “We’ve always lived here, graduated from here, invested our lives here.”
In return, the community has supported 4T’s for over six decades.
“That’s worked in my favor,” Tim said about taking over the family business. “They know us and they trust us. They’ve known me all my life and are genuinely glad we’re still here.”
Tim, who has co-owned 4T’s with his brother Terry since 1998, said his father decided he was ready to retire and off-loaded the Kingfisher location at that time. Bonnie passed away and John moved to Oklahoma City.
“Terry and I took over,” Tim said. Shortly after assuming the reins, the brothers changed wholesalers and dropped IGA from the store name, rebranding as 4T’s Discount Foods.
The Taylor boys have tirelessly worked, much like their father before them, to maintain the quality of customer service plus the quality of food their customers have come to expect.
“You’re here to serve your community,” Tim said. “And they honor us with their business.”
They try to source local, too, such as buying eggs from Hansen’s Eggs out of Hitchcock in nearby Blaine County as well as stocking Hennessey’s own Turner Me On wines. 4T’s also carries Certified Hereford Beef, which is an alliance of local Hereford ranchers including fourth-generation Hennessey rancher Cindy Pribil and Waukomis breeder John Loewen.
Beginning in 2019, 4T’s also began partnering with the Hennessey Public Library to provide the pumpkins for the library’s annual fall fundraising pumpkin patch.
Giving the personal touch
“Our personal touch is what sets us apart,” Tim said.
4T’s best seller is meat. Through the years, people have driven near and far to buy meat from the Taylors because they can get exactly what they want in meat choices, size, and cut. John started the trend of custom butchering meat that is now carried on by head meat cutter Kayleigh Fox and assistant meat cutter Greg Federko.
Tim has been told their meat is more tender too.
“Our prices are competitive. Anybody can come here and be satisfied,” he said.
He’s widely known for his animated and sometimes silly marketing promotions on the company social media channels to get new and returning customers in the door.
John returned to Hennessey in 2013, and while he’s technically retired, at the age of 86, he helps his sons with the weekly ads.
They run weekly and holiday themed specials and host instant win giveaways on occasion. Even though 4T’s actual store anniversary is in September, Tim said they celebrate it in June to avoid conflicts with school activities and football season, so that marketing campaign is currently ongoing.
Every Thursday 4T’s offers “Fresh at Five” which is smoked meats hot and ready to take home for dinner at 5 p.m., and at noon on Saturday are “Hot and Ready” rotisserie items for quick meals on the weekend.
National Grocers Association, which represents independent community grocers across the country, awarded 4T’s the Creative Choice Award in advertising in 2013 for the “Shark Week” promotion of its meat department’s steaks with a play on the “Jaws” movie poster. The year before, Associated Wholesale Grocers, Oklahoma City division, recognized 4T’s for excellence in merchandising outstanding marketing campaign.
Moving right along
Twenty years in, 4T’s strategically relocated to the eastern edge of town because their current location was then the bustling intersection of Oklahoma 51 and U.S. 81.
“In 1982, we built here,” Tim said. According to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, “It was the busiest intersection in the state. That’s why we moved out here.”
There was a shopping center proposed for across the highway where Hennessey Public Schools’ ball fields are today; that plan never came to fruition, Tim said.
Instead, in 1986, ODOT repositioned the intersection farther west to where it is now.
That same decade, the only other competing grocery store on Main Street closed and its owner, Harry Koehn, came to 4T’s to work as a butcher alongside John for several years. He died in 2019.
The Taylors upgraded parts of the grocery store in 2015 to become more energy efficient, which initially helped cut the store’s electric bill by 40%, Tim said. They installed 44 new deli and dairy case doors along the east wall, restructured to three-tier and five-tier meat cases as well as two produce cases, and modernized the walk-ins’ fans to better regulate cool temperatures. They also added a beer cave.
In 2017, the name changed once more to 4T’s Family Market. When they changed wholesalers in 2019, they also focused on trade partnerships with other locally owned grocers in Northwest Oklahoma including Canton Foods and Richard’s Food Store in Ringwood. Unfortunately, Tim said, it’s hard for rural grocers to stay in business with today’s economy; Okeene Market and Zook’s Country Market in Waynoka both recently shuttered their doors.
“We’ve been fortunate,” he said.
To help keep the price of groceries down, 4T’s installed solar panels on the roof this year to substantially reduce the electric bill, which is high thanks to the older aisle grocery cases that drain more energy, Tim said.
They continue to look for other ways to stay relevant and draw people in, and because 4T’s is independently owned, they can make decisions in a day and implement those new ideas the next. A few years ago, the Taylors brought in an instant photo finishing machine so people could print pictures from their smartphones. The brothers are constantly reinvesting in the store.
“We believe if customers leave happy, they’ll come back,” said Tim, whose open-air office is located right next the checkout stands. Many patrons will stop and talk with him, wave at him, or haggle with him about products they want to see in the store.
He is 66 and Terry is 65. They’re not looking to retire anytime soon; “I’ve got a lot of bills to pay,” Tim joked. He also said none of the third generation of Taylors are interested in the grocer industry and the fourth generation is too young yet to know.
So 4T’s will keep plugging along in the meantime, employing and empowering local families.
4Ts Family Market, 801 E. Jack Choate Ave., Hennessey, is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit them online at 4tsfamilymarket.com or on Facebook @4TsDiscountFoods.