Producing a hometown atmosphere
It’s 10 a.m. at Wolfe’s Produce Market in Riverview, and co-owner Jeff Wolfe is wheeling and dealing.
This is not your normal hard sell, though. It’s subtle, yet effective.
For buying $10 worth of fruits and vegetables this week at the produce stand at 6005 U.S. Highway 301 S., customers are rewarded with a free watermelon. One woman checks out and her bill is $9.61.
“You buy another peach and you can get a free watermelon,” Wolfe says.
Sold. The woman actually spends an additional $1.53, and both Wolfe and the customer are happy. Wolfe employee Greg Moody totes the melon to the customer’s car, and Jeff Wolfe pauses to reflect on the thriving business that he and his twin brother John opened on May 12, 2008.
“I was a born talker. My brother is the shy one,” said Jeff, 32. “I like making my own way. When I get up in the morning, I know it’s up to me.”
The Wolfe brothers were born in Brandon (“John is a minute older than me,” Jeff says) and attended area schools including Yates and Riverview (elementary), Eisenhower Middle School and Riverview High School. They graduated from high school in 2003.
“My brother and I were always into ag and the FFA,” Wolfe said. “We showed cattle and swine in middle school and in high school.
“We grew up in the country. We were never farmers but we grew up around it.”
The idea of starting their own business came to the Wolfe brothers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Wolfes and a few friends went to Laurel, Mississippi, to help out, cutting down trees and clearing right-of-ways. Returning home, the Wolfes decided to open up a produce stand.
“I was 23, young, no kids, no mortgage,” said Wolfe, who is now married and the father of two daughters ages 3 and 1. A third child, a boy, is expected in January. John Wolfe also settled down, got married and is the father of two daughters.
“It took everything we had to start,” Jeff Wolfe said. “I didn’t know if we’d last a month.”
It has lasted nearly a decade. The stand originally sat on the corner of U.S. 301 and Progress Boulevard, but when the Thorntons convenience store was built in 2012 the Wolfes moved slightly south. The Thorntons parking lot runs past the produce stand, so there is plenty of secondary business in addition to the regulars who visit.
“This whole corner has been a blessing,” Wolfe said. “We get a lot of traffic from the gas station.”
The original stand was in the path of a tornado that ripped through Riverview on March 31, 2011. There was some damage to some of the poles holding up the stand, but it was relatively minor.
Wolfe’s Produce is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is a relaxed feel to the place.
“We like to treat it like a real meeting spot, a slower pace than a grocery store. We’re kind of like the barbershop or the old country store,” Wolfe said. “It’s like you’re taking a step back in time.”
The Wolfes are gearing up for the holiday season. The next big thing for the produce stand will be the annual hayride leading up to Halloween. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening hayrides will begin at 6:30 p.m. for three weekends starting on Oct. 13 (yes, Friday the 13th).
“It may not feel like the fall, but it will look like fall,” Wolfe said.
There will be activities planned for Christmas season, too.
Wolfe cuts up a mango and shares it with a customer. He notes that September is “a transition month,” as the summer fruit season is ending. “Florida has eight months of growing season,” he says.
The motto at Wolfe’s is simple and straightforward: Enjoy your local harvest. Especially when the selection is plentiful and the prices are good.
“Everybody needs a bargain,” Jeff Wolfe said. “When we catch a deal, we try to pass it on.”
