By Jose Vera | SDP Payroll
Claremont, Ca – Wolfe’s Market, recently celebrating 100 years of business, has long been a customer of Southland Data Processing as well as a Claremont community favorite. Peter, founder of Southland Data Processing, had a great relationship with Tom’s father, Ed Wolfe, thus beginning their long, and cherished, history of being SDP customers.
For this reason, we chose Tom Wolfe, current owner of Wolfe’s Market, to launch the first of our SDP Client Spotlights! As Tom let us know, they “chose SDP because they are local, gave us a better level of service, and the pricing was competitive!”
In order to understand why they align so well with the values of SDP, one has to go back to the roots of Wolfe’s Market.
Wolfe’s Market’s story begins with Tom’s Great-Grandfather, John D. Wolfe, who came from the coal mines of Illinois. Wanting to move his family to a healthier area, he purchased the property in various California beach communities, as well as other notable areas. The Claremont location, in particular, was of significant value as it was the only stop on Route 66 between Pasadena and San Bernardino at the time.
John’s pioneering spirit and resourcefulness launched the business off to a great start, as well as navigating it through tough times during the Great Depression.
John’s son, Claude Wolfe, originally was fascinated by electronics and aviation. While employed at Lockheed and Martin, he notably worked on Emilia Earhart’s plane. All the while, Claude witnessed how hard his parents were working at the market, compelling him to leave behind his electronics and aviation career to continue the family legacy.
His son, Ed Wolfe, was a pure athlete and was drafted into Major League Baseball after high school. After serving in the Army, he was compelled to come back to the family business as well.
Tom’s father, Ed, encouraged him to pursue his education with tutoring and enrollment into the Webb Schools. Tom later graduated with a business degree from Brigham Young University, adding to his array of skill traits. He saw the huge potential in the family business and this, along with his heart to pursue the family legacy, helped Tom to continue forging Wolfe’s Market into a Claremont business community icon.
Tom worked hard to continue the legacy, but became heavily involved in the many daily processes of running the business. While he wanted to be great at what he did, Tom realized that you can’t ever be great at something when you’re doing a whole lot of things at once. As he says, “If you do a few things you can be good, but if you focus on one thing you can be great!”
As the economy turned, Tom faced turmoil on multiple fronts. It was at this time that he embraced the P90X fitness program, to what he credits as a part of his life-changing transformation. As he reinvented himself, and began to positively transform lives around him, Tom realized that this was a part of the next chapter to Wolfe’s Market’s legacy.
Today, Tom coaches professionally for the Beachbody fitness program, manages the Wolfe’s family properties, and proudly trains his son in Law, Jeff, as the next generation to continue the Wolfe’s Market legacy. As Tom shared with us, the goal for 2018 is to triple the sales for Wolfe’s Market, while providing the very best deli service in Southern California.
Wolfe’s Market is also a premier breakfast and lunch destination with a large variety of handmade salads and entrees. They also feature a Healthy Eating Plan using freshly prepared and calorie counted meals, with a wide variety of rotating menus.
Tom credits his success to what he learned from his Grandfather and Father, Claude and Ed Wolfe, as well as the cherished partnerships with community businesses, namely SDP Payroll.
As Tom’s testimonial to his relationship with SDP Payroll puts it best as to how community partnerships empower him to continue the legacy of Wolfe’s Market:
SDP Payroll has given us a variety of custom services over the years that we just couldn’t get anywhere else. SDP helped us to create a custom employee handbook with proper legal advice, in terms of vacation pay and other benefits, as we made changes to our individual policies. Shauna also reminded me that while on vacation without internet service, we were given a high level of customer service while communicating with SDP over the phone!
As Tom takes joy in being able to not only to pass on his knowledge to the next Wolfe generation, he also to continues embrace giving back to his Claremont community! Take advantage of the great BUY ONE, GET ONE offer Wolfe’s Market has extended to our readers (shown below), and see for yourself the charm of Wolfe’s Market’s 100 Year Legacy!
For more information about Wolfe’s Market, click here!
SDP Client Spotlights: Celebrating Our Clients
Every month, we highlight one of our amazing clients with our SDP Client Spotlight. Here at Southland Data Processing, we’re in the people business, and strive to always put our clients first. If you or your organization is interested in becoming our next Client Spotlight, please contact us at [email protected] and we’d love to hear your story!
Photos by Wolfe’s Market