Working 50 years for the same company is a milestone few people reach. For Bill Summers, it’s just what happens naturally when you find work you love in a town full of wonderful people worth sticking around for.
Summers has worked for the Utah-based Macey’s grocery store chain for half a century. He’s spent 44 of those 50 years as the store director at Macey’s in Spanish Fork. He said that over the years, he’s watched the current building rise up from what used to be swampland on 1000 North to become the busiest Associated Foods-owned grocery store in Utah.
Summers said that when he started, there were no businesses further down the road, adding that, “We were out here kind of by ourselves.”
Today, the street is lined with businesses of all types, and Summers views the growth as both incredible and exciting. The best part, he says, is that Spanish Fork has somehow maintained its down-home feeling, despite the growth.
Becoming a grocery store director wasn’t part of his life plan, however. Summers grew up in Orem where he attended Orem High School, and went on to serve a mission in Austria before enrolling at BYU, where he planned to gain a degree in geology and make a career for himself in the oil business.
His plans changed when he met his wife at BYU and the two started a family. In 1976, he took a job at a grocery Maycey’s in Orem (where Best Buy now stands) to help make ends meet, and he “never got back to school.”
Not long after starting the job in Orem, he was moved to the Macey’s in Salem, where he spent six years before becoming the store manager of the one in Spanish Fork, which is where he still works to this day.
Maycey’s in Spanish Fork has undergone a lot of changes over the years. When he started, it was in a modest building that once stood near where Seagull Book sits today. That old building was demolished in 2003 to make way for the current, 65,000-square-foot building that has become a familiar shopping destination for Spanish Fork residents and visitors alike.
Summers said that the largest change since he started managing Spanish Fork Macey’s, is growth.
“The number of businesses we had then compared to what we have now, there’s just no comparison,” he said, adding that the people “are just amazing,”
“I love ‘em,” he said, smiling. “All of them go out of their way for each other, and it’s just fun to work with them.”
The feeling seems to be mutual.
One of his longtime assistants, Raul Carson, was first hired by Summers as a 16-year-old when he first became manager. Carson, who also runs his own sheep farm, still works at the Spanish Fork Macey’s 44 years later. Similarly, some of the cashiers Summers manages today are the grandchildren of employees he hired generations ago.
Summers credits the store’s success to something former owner Ken Macey used to say, which was, “We’re in the people business, and we just sell groceries on the side.”
This is a philosophy Summers has carried through every year of his career, and one he says sets the Spanish Fork Macey’s location apart from everywhere else.
“It’s our customer service,” he said. “I think we give better service than our competitors. I think our produce and meat departments and our bakery are better than anybody else around.”
“I’d do anything for Spanish Fork,” he added. “The people are the only reason we’re still in business, and I love them.”
That dedication to the local residents also extends to his hiring practices, and Summers said that his location intentionally hires employees with special needs—a choice he stands firmly behind.
He also said he enjoys helping teenagers out with their first job, adding that he’s watched employees who got their start at Macey’s go on to remarkable careers—including a general in the Air National Guard, several doctors and dentists, and the owner of a major homebuilding company.
“It’s kind of rewarding to see them grow like that,” he said.
Summers’ love for those he works with and serves at his store hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Bill Summers is one of the best people I know,” Tyler Mendenhall wrote on a community Facebook post announcing Summers’ 50th year at Macey’s. “(He’s) such a pillar in the community. I’m proud to call him a friend.”
Other community members and Macey’s employees share similar sentiments.
As to what keeps Summers going after half a century of long hours and clocking more than 15,000 steps every workday, he says he’s “still having fun.”
“As long as it’s fun, I’ll keep doing it.”
