Nov 3, 2014 3 min read

At 3 p.m. Oct. 30, Bethel Park resident Jack Schricker walked out the door of McGinnis Sisters Special Food Stores for the final time. Oh, he’ll be back – but as a customer and not as an employee.

After 50 years working for the family-owned food store in Brentwood, Schricker retired two days shy of his 64th birthday. He said he’ll miss the people, customers and co-workers, but he’s ready to sit back and relax.

“I’m done,” he said of working as he greeted friends and former employees who returned to share memories and a piece of cake in his beloved produce department on his last day as an employee.

When asked what, if anything, he will miss the most, Schricker’s reply was instantaneous, “The people. That’s why I did this.”

As a farewell gift, the McGinnis family presented him with two rocking chairs – one for him and one for his wife of 41 years, the former Beverly Boeltz. The two met when Schricker worked as a stock boy and she as a cashier. They have four children and six grandchildren. Future plans call for sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch of their cabin in Clarion County near Cook’s Forest. After his wife retires in a year or two from her three-day-a-week job, the couple will move permanently to the cabin, he said.

Bonnie Vello, one of the McGinnis sisters, remembers Schricker from when the two attended Baldwin High School in the late 1960s. After classes, he worked in the store and she ran a cash register.

“Everyone knew everyone,” Vello said. “We worked together here for 47 years. I don’t think he missed a day of work. He was here in snow and ice.”

Schricker began working for the grocery store when he was about 15 years old, working part time while he attended high school and two years of college. He joined the Marine Corps Reserves before opting to attend school that could have resulted in a desk job.

“But I couldn’t sit behind a desk,” he said. “I liked working with people.”

So he returned to McGinnis Sisters, where he apprenticed as a meat cutter. Within two years, Schricker was the department manager until being promoted to vice president of operations in the mid-1980s.

“But I didn’t like working in an office,” he said. He went back on the floor working with and mentoring younger employees. Even now, he keeps a thank you letter sent by one of his younger co-workers.

“When I’m having a bad day, I pull it out and read it,” he said. “I still keep that letter.”

His final days in the store were as produce manager, the department he said he really enjoyed because of the constant changes.

Former McGinnis employee Gert Foster returned to say farewell to Schricker. She’s been retired for about a year after 53 years working in the store.

“I remember Jack when he came to the store on the way home from school,” Foster said. “I knew his mom and dad.”

Vivian Denk retired from McGinnis a year ago after 19 years of employment.

“If I needed anything or needed something done, you could go to Jack,” Denk said. “He was our Jack of all Trades.”

He expected to retire a few years ago, but was enticed by the sisters to return a few days a week.

“I decided it’s time now, while I’m still healthy enough,” Schricker said.