Cape Girardeau Food Giant manager's last day will be in same store he worked his first

In a career that has gone full circle, Edward Spalding is retiring Friday as store manager of Food Giant in Cape Girardeau, where he got his first job when he was 16 years old.

Starting as a stock boy, Spalding said he worked after school and on weekends for two years at the grocery store. After graduating high school, he moved over to Del Farms grocery store and worked there for 22 years. That store, part of the National chain, was sold to Schnucks in 1995 and closed a few years later. After a short stint working for Wendy's, Spalding said he moved to St. Louis and worked for Shop 'n Save for the next 13 years. However, he said he always wanted to get back home to Cape Girardeau.

"It's my hometown, and my parents still lived here," Spalding said. "I would come down to visit every other week, and I would always stop by the Food Giant because I knew most people there who had also worked at Del Farm."

Spalding had worked up to assistant store manager at Shop 'n Save, but he said when he came home to visit he would ask whether there was an opening for him at the Food Giant. One day, in 2009, he got half the answer he'd hoped for. There was an opening, and Food Giant hired him to be a store manager. However, it was for the location in Sikeston, Missouri. Spalding moved back to Cape Girardeau and commuted to Sikeston for the next 10 years.

Then his wish finally came true. The store manager at the Cape Girardeau store was transferring to a location in Tennessee, and Spalding was offered the job. He said he was happy to finally be back at the store where he first started.

It was a challenging time, however, because right after he starting at the Cape Girardeau location, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He said he's had to weather the storms of rushes on paper products, supply-chain issues and staffing shortages.

After 50 years, Spalding said he has worked every position a grocery store has to offer, from stock boy all the way up to store manager, but now he is ready to retire.

"I'm going to take it easy through the winter months, but then my wife and I want to do some traveling out west," Spalding said. "Most of my vacations have been stay-at-home, so we're excited to see places like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon."