During the first five years, John Dyke exhausted every ounce of energy and used every penny he had.
He tapped into his home equity โa couple of timesโ to keep his business afloat. He often worked 10- to 12-hour days, seven days a week. There were even countless times when feeding himself meant buying and eating what Dyke calls โexpired product that I knew was still good.โ
โInstead of having the loss, I would put my own money back into the store and I would eat any of the loss,โ Dyke said. โI did that for a very long time. It kept the store healthy.โ
This month marks 19 years of Dyke owning The Turnip Truck, a trio of local grocery stores in Nashville built around natural foods. Heโs a long way from the days of having to โeat any of the loss.โ
But similar to his time opening the first Turnip Truck, the March 3 tornado and Covid-19 forced Dyke back into working 10 to 12 hours, seven days a week.
The Turnip Truck is considered an essential business and has remained busy throughout the coronavirus lockdown.
Initially, Dyke couldnโt devote all his attention to Covid-19 because he spent early March dealing with the tornado that struck Nashville and Middle Tennessee. He spent six or seven days digging out equipment from his warehouse that took a direct hit.
But one day, he had to pause as he saw a spike in sales.
โHow we noticed the impact of Covid-19 was the customers coming in and the basket sizes they were buying had almost tripled at that time,โ Dyke said. โI knew that it was here, and people were showing it with their shopping.โ
Amid this crisis, Dyke has added more shelves and hired more employees. At the beginning of quarantine in March, Dyke opened The Turnip Truckโs third location, a store in West Nashville. He also introduced an e-commerce platform and announced the stores would be hiring 30 employees.
One area of the business that has been hurt the most is The Turnip Truckโs food-service stations, which include hot and salad bars. While the stations account for 20% of his business, Dyke closed them for safety reasons. Dyke said reopening the stations in the short term means having employees pre-pack salads and other meals to avoid them becoming high-touch points.
While the circumstances are tough, Dyke remains willing to do whatever is necessary to save his business and provide what he believes to be a necessary service.
โI love this business. Itโs the first thing Iโve ever done in my life where I feel like Iโm giving back to the community,โ Dyke said. โYou can go to other grocery stores. But when you come into The Turnip Truck, we care about your lifestyle. We care about your health. People come in here looking for answers on how to make themselves feel better, and how to have a healthier lifestyle. It makes me happy to be able to serve them.โ
Dyke opened The Turnip Truck in May 2001 after more than a decade in medical sales. Dyke had grown tired of the grueling travel schedule that kept him on the road for five days each week.
Dyke spent his formative years on a family farm in Greenville, Tennessee. Thatโs where his love for natural foods began.
It culminated three years prior to opening The Turnip Truck as Dyke immersed himself in the natural food industry by reading literature and attending every natural food expo he could.
โIt reminded me of all the fresh gardening we did growing up,โ Dyke said. โHow much was raised. How much was canned. It reminded me that all the food I ate as a kid was grown outside my house or across the street. From spring on to summer, there was some sort of crop coming in. I always go back to the tomatoes: Some of the best tomatoes are homegrown. That was the best part of the year, getting a homegrown tomato out of your garden during that time because it tastes so much better. They had full flavor, they were juicy and they tasted like what a tomato should taste like.โ
This story is part of a national series from the Business Journalsโ 44 newsrooms across the country.ย Click hereย to read all 247 stories.
Ashley is StyleBlueprint’s Editorial Director. She loves storytelling and the opportunity to explore the South via the content on StyleBlueprint.
John Dyke opened the firstย Turnip Truckย store back in 2001 in East Nashville. Since then, the business has expanded to now have three Nashville locations, its newest one opening on Charlotte Avenue only a few short weeks ago โ during a pandemic, no less. Since then, John and his crew have been hustling to keep shelves stocked and staff and customers safe. Find out more about John, learn what itโs like to open a business during the pandemic, and hear the most impactful experience heโs had during it all.ย ย
John Dyke has been serving up healthy options viaย The Turnip Truckย since 2001, and his commitment to that mission is stronger than ever.
You recently opened your Charlotte Avenue Turnip Truck location. What was it like opening the store as the quarantine was just getting underway?
It was an adventure, to put it mildly. Along with being in quarantine, we had also lost a significant amount of equipment for the store in the Nashville tornadoes the previous month. Our team rallied to complete the store and stock the shelves, realizing that our neighbors need food and supply sources now more than ever.
What sort of safety measures have you taken โ and required your staff to take โ to ensure your employees and shoppers are all safe during this time?
If youโre familiar with our business, you know that health is at the very heart of what we do. To provide whole, organic food in an unsafe environment would be counterintuitive โ and just wrong. Our goal during COVID-19 has been to take all the measures within our power to keep our team members and customers safe. This involves providing masks for our employees, installing register shields, and keeping hand sanitizer constantly available for employees and guests. We always have stringent cleaning practices, and we have amplified those during the pandemic. That includes wiping down carts and counters all day and running shopping baskets through a sanitizing wash cycle. We also encourage social distancing in the store and are constantly checking in with our teams to make sure everyone is healthy and in a good place to serve our guests.
Several weeks ago, John trained his staff on the ins and outs of the new online ordering platform.
What are the major differences in your day-to-day work now vs. pre-COVID-19?
Difficult times tend to teach us about ourselves, and COVID-19 has reminded me how much I enjoy this line of work. Iโm definitely a hands-on entrepreneur, involved in every aspect of The Turnip Truckโs operations. At such a challenging and unprecedented time, I owe it to my business, my customers and myself to show up and lead โ every day. This pandemic has meant longer hours, many new tasks and more daily decisions. It has also been very humbling to be able to provide such an essential service such as providing food to our community.
What has been the biggest impact on your business as a result of COVID-19 and the quarantine?
Keeping up with demand for essential items such as paper products has been an unprecedented hurdle. Being able to provide friendly, personal service while maintaining social distancing in the store has been key to us, and Iโm proud of our teams for rising to the occasion.
What has been the most memorable or impactful experience you have had during this period of time?
Iโll never forget the day we packed 500 bags of groceries donated by our vendor UNFI and delivered them to the Second Harvest Food Bank at East Nashvilleโs Martha OโBryan Center. Our community has been hit twice โ first by the tornadoes, then by COVID-19 โ and people are struggling to put food on the table. It was humbling to be able to help in some way.
This sentiment is at the heart of The Turnip Truck.
Have there been any changes to your business practice that were made due to COVID-19 you think you may continue even after the pandemic ends?
Absolutely. One service we have rolled out recently is online ordering and grocery delivery. This was something we had planned to do later this year, but we expedited the process due to the pandemic. Customers have responded very well, and we will certainly continue that service.
Anything else you would like to add?
Iโd like to thank Nashville for supporting local businesses. We are here because we love our neighbors, and we have felt the love during this pandemic. This has been a tough time for everyone, but I hope we never forget how much we need each other. We are stronger together, and Iโm so glad to call Nashville home.
ย
Thank you, John! To learn more about The Turnip Truck, to order groceries, or to find a Turnip Truck location near you, visitย theturniptruck.com.
John Dyke, owner and founder of The Turnip Truck, opened a new grocery store a week after the entire nation was essentially shutdown during the pandemic.
Byย Marq Burnettย ย โย Reporter, Nashville Business Journal
May 1, 2020, 7:05am EDT
To better understand the scope of the challenges small businesses are facing due to the coronavirus, the Nashville Business Journal has been staying in close contact in recent weeks with seven CEOs, owners and entrepreneurs. For this story, we asked them variations of this question: โWhat are you doing to save your business?โ The question is not a perfect fit, as some executives feel prepared for this moment, and even see big opportunities to grow market share. But for others โ who are attempting to avoid layoffs or whose revenue has suddenly disappeared โ the question couldnโt be more pressing.
Weโll continue to follow these people and companies in the coming weeks. Indeed, youโll hear from them again on May 29, when we and the rest of The Business Journals network will publish our โSmall business, big missionโ special report, which will tell the stories of how companies across the country are evolving. But for now, hereโs a look inside Nashville companiesโ fight for survival.
John Dyke tries to avoid letting the stress overwhelm him, but the doubts still creep into his mind.
Is the staff happy, safe and taken care of? Am I doing all the right things to protect our customers? Do we have enough products?
Dykeโs The Turnip Truck, a trio of local grocery stores, is considered an essential business and has remained busy throughout the coronavirus lockdown.
โThereโs been stress, but I donโt like carrying it into the store,โ Dyke said. โWhat Iโve done is buckled down every day and changed my role to being more hands-on on the [sales] floor. I try not to carry the stress into the business.โ
Amid this crisis, Dyke has added more shelves and hired more employees. Following the tornado and at the beginning of quarantine in March, Dyke opened The Turnip Truckโs third location, a store in West Nashville. He also announced the company would be hiring 30 employees.
Since then, Dyke has launched the companyโs e-commerce platform. Dyke also said he plans to hire another 20 or more people to meet both in-store and online demand.
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โWeโre fortunate to be in a position where we can help people out as an essential business,โ Dyke said. โWith most people not eating out, The Turnip Truck has been a great asset for the community.โ
One area of the business that has been hurt the most is The Turnip Truckโs food service stations, which include hot and salad bars. Dyke made the decision to close the stations, which account for 20% of his business, for safety. Heโs currently planning for how to re-open that part of the business once things are safe again.
โWe donโt know if itโs two, four or six weeks out, but we want to have the guidelines in place so weโre ready to go when itโs safe to start that part of the business again,โ Dyke said.
