Derrick Simpson, who has managed Greenwood Market Place since 1995, says he immediately felt at home when he first settled in Greenwood and is glad to contribute to the community both inside and outside work.
“This whole community is like part of my family,” he said.
Simpson, 54, was born in Starkville, graduated from Starkville High School in 1986 and completed an associate’s degree in business at Mississippi State University in 1988.
He began working in the grocery business at the age of 14 at a Food Giant store in Starkville.
“I walked in and asked the guy, ‘Are you hiring?’ He looked at me, and he asked me one question, and I answered it ‘Yes,’ and he asked me if I could be back in an hour,” Simpson recalled. “I never filled out any paperwork; I just went back and started working.”
The “one question,” he said, was whether he had a button-down shirt and tie he could wear to work, which he did. “That was my interview.”
After he returned with the proper attire, he was handed a mop and worked from 5 to 10 p.m. He still has the check stub from his first week, in which he worked 41 hours.
Later he was able to put together a work wardrobe with a combination of church clothes and hand-me-downs.
He took architectural design classes in school and was planning on a career in that field.
“My very close friend, he went on and made a career out of it, and I was going to follow along behind him, and we were both working in the grocery store together in Starkville,” he said.
The friend did end up working in architecture. But in 1988, Simpson was offered a job in Greenwood in the grocery business and began a long career of his own. “The grocery business has kept me grounded,” he said.
He prepared for a management role by building up experience in every store department and taking part in off-site training. Having started in the business pushing a mop, he said he has always believed in treating employees at all levels equally.
“The guy mopping the floor’s just as important as the guy running the company, the way I look at things,” he said. “Everybody’s important.”
His first management opportunity was running a Piggly Wiggly store in Clarksdale. After two years there, he managed Piggly Wiggly locations in Indianola, Rosedale, Tunica and Itta Bena and ran stores in locations including Coffeeville, Senatobia and Winona for shorter periods. He ended up at the Piggly Wiggly (since closed) on Mississippi 7 in Greenwood before joining Market Place.
He said he adjusted well to the Delta after moving from Starkville — and when he moved to Greenwood, he thought early on that he could stay for the long term. He met some people his age and was able to blend in well with others, he said.
“It’s just humbling how welcomed I was here,” he said.
He felt that kind of camaraderie at work, too: “I had a lot of mentors and people that were in my corner that I looked up to. A lot of them are gone now, but some are still with me. Some are retired, and I still look up to them.”
Both individually and through the store, he has been active in a number of organizations over the years, including The Salvation Army, the United Way of Leflore County, and the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce. He has a particular fondness for The Salvation Army, for which he has volunteered for 25 years, including serving on its board. His store continues to host The Salvation Army’s Christmas season kickoff each year.
“They know that my heart lies with them,” he said. ‘They are truly an organization that gets involved with the community 100%.”
A seventh-generation Mason, he also has been active in the Rotary Club and was part of the Starkville Jaycees.
Simpson has two sons, Roger and Derrick, and a stepson, Brendan Hooper.
He is accustomed to working long hours, although he does occasionally get a day off and sometimes can even squeeze in a vacation. He said he has been blessed with good health and a strong work ethic inherited from his parents.
Regarding rumors that he planned to retire around his 40th year in the business, he said, “That story is still to be written, but I’m here, and I’m looking forward to being here for many more years, because I enjoy what I do.”
The COVID-19 pandemic presented some new challenges to his job, especially since he works in a “necessity business” rather than an “accessory business.”
Fortunately, just before the pandemic hit in 2020, the store had received truckloads of paper products in preparation for its April parking lot sale. That helped the business deal with the shortages of toilet paper and paper towels for a while — and although some customers weren’t happy about the limits placed on purchases, many others understood. “That’s when I realized my job was changing — and people were changing, too,” he said of the fear in the community early on. “We persevered and overcame and did our best taking care of the community and the people who shop here, and they really supported us.”
He said shortages of some basic food ingredients led to difficulty stocking popular items such as Oreo cookies and Ritz and Premium crackers — “things I took for granted five years ago.” The store also has dealt with staff shortages from time to time, and expenses are up. But he said people have been very supportive.
“It’s been a blessing to me and a blessing to my employees that we have the support from the community that we do,” he said.
Greenwood Market Place is 100% employee-owned, and Simpson said he is proud to have good employees who work hard and also join in his community endeavors. He welcomes customers’ suggestions, too.
“Greenwood is a special place, and I am so proud to have been a part of it over the years,” he said, “because Greenwood has truly welcomed me, not only as a grocer that they can trust but a friend and a part of their family. And I’m here when they need me.”
- Contact David Monroe at 662-581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
