From: Coastal Point
Fifty years ago this week, Gerald Hocker was fresh out of college, newly married, and his Uncle Jake made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Jake Hocker had opened his grocery store 17 years before, was ready to retire, and had no children to pass the business to. So, he offered to turn the business over to Gerald, who had just graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in business administration and was preparing to go to work for Acme Markets in St Michael’s, Md.
“It changed the course of my life, that’s for sure,” Hocker said.
On Oct. 23, 1971, he and his new bride, Emily, took over the store on Cedar Neck Road in Ocean View, which became G&E Supermarket, the letters standing for “Gerald and Emily.”
Sitting in the office at the G&E/Hocker’s location at the Salt Pond near Bethany Beach this week, Hocker, 73, said when he took over the Cedar Neck store, he planned on retiring at 55. Then he laughed. “That’s when I got involved in politics,” he said.
Hocker served as state representative for the 38th District starting in 2003 and as state senator for the 20th District since 2013; he has served as Senate Minority Leader since 2013.
Naming several employees who stayed with Hocker’s for decades, he said some retired after 45 years, like Gerald Hudson, last year. “They’ve retired, but I’m still here,” he said. Current employee Kim Blake has been with the company for 46 years, according to Hocker.
“I’ve got a good team around me,” he said. “They have made our family business what it is today.”
These days, Hocker can spend the time he needs to on state issues, since three of his children – Gerry, Gregory and Melissa – are now heavily involved in the grocery business, which includes the Hocker’s SuperCenter and Hocker’s Deli locations in Clarksville, the Salt Pond location, G&E Hardware in Cedar Neck and the original store.
“I’ve grown up in this place,” said Gerry Hocker, 48, joining his dad in the office.
The family is currently working to transition the old G&E store into what will be split into two businesses — a new location for the hardware store, and, eventually, a restaurant. The hardware store’s move, coming next month, from its current location next door will add another 2,000 square feet of retail space, Hocker said.
“It’s going to be great,” he said of the hardware store. “It’s going to be a hardware store people talk about.”
Plans for the restaurant are coming along, both men said. Gerry Hocker said the focus will be on crabs, as well as barbeque and Hocker’s award-winning fried chicken.
The current hardware store location will become a distribution center for Hocker’s Outdoors, an online business specializing in clothing and equipment for outdoor sports such as fishing, hunting and archery. Gerry Hocker said that not many local people are aware of the online store, which ships goods all over the world. Some of the items are available in the Clarksville store.
The online business grew out of the family’s inclusion of outdoors products in their retail locations, according to Gerry Hocker, who said it began with “dabbling” in the online business and figuring things out as they went along.
“We try to follow trends,” Gerry Hocker said. The online business has taken off during the Covid-19 pandemic, both men said, since people have been more likely to shop online than they were before the virus outbreak in 2020. Now, he said, “we have a whole team that does all of the online stuff.”
Gerald Hocker said he is pleased with the way the business has evolved, and continues to do so. “My dad said the only way to coast is downhill,” he said. “We haven’t started coasting yet.”