Walker Spotlight: Bo Griggs

A Lifetime of Hard Work – Bo Griggs Celebrates 50 years with Walker Auto & Truck

Bo Riggs receiving his 50-year service award with Nat Walker and the Rockingham Team

James “Bo” Griggs, longtime Rockingham Store Manager and now part-time counter person, celebrated his 50-year anniversary working for Barnes Motor & Parts Co. and now Walker Auto & Truck this year. That’s a lifetime of achievement, and he’s still not done working hard.

Bo had been working with a construction company out of Mt Airy but when his wife became pregnant, he knew he needed to find a job closer to home in Rockingham. One of his buddies had been working at the local parts store in town and brought him on to be a delivery driver. He was just 20 years old at the time and made close to $1.65 an hour.

Bo’s original scratchpad from when he first started

Within just a year and a half he became the store manager. A job he would hold for the next 46 years, through a store move, supplier change when it switched to NAPA and eventual owner change when the Barnes store became Walker Auto & Truck.

“The manager job became mine by process of elimination. The store had a manager, outside sales, and a driver, but really we all did whatever needed to be done,” Bo said.  

It was clear that the job did not just fall to Bo by process of elimination, as in just three months of being the store manager he doubled the sales to $20,000. He eventually grew the store to a $200,000 a month location.

Bo credits his mother with instilling in him a work ethic that led to his success and his longevity in this industry. That and his knack for hiring people who he could sense had that same internal drive and passion for work.

“My mother had four kids, was the breadwinner, and raised all four of us. If you wanted something, you had to go out and work for it. I’ve taken that with me,” said Bo.

His work ethic was often passed on to the people he would hire and work with. He got involved in the local high school tech program and would try to recruit their best students to come work in the store. Paco, now a paint BDM for the store, was one of those students, along with countless others.

One of these hires, Sylvia, worked for Bo six times on and off as she went back to school and became an RN. Another, Debbie, worked for Bo seven different times, and now heads up the Richmond County School Bus Garage.

“Folks either have good work habits or they don’t and they’re not going to change, no matter how much you get on them,” said Bo. “A guy asked Sylvia one time why she kept working for me if I was so hard to work for and I’ve always loved her response – ‘Bo ain’t hard to work for if you like to work!’” 

Bo said people started to know him around Rockingham as “Bo Barnes”, becoming synonymous with the store that he ran for so many years.

“Back then you got to know your customers. You knew their families, their wives, their kids – they usually had their kids working with them,” Bo remembered. “A lot of our customers I had grown up with, had gone to school with. Friends would ask me why I didn’t correct our customers when they thought I was a ‘Barnes’ and I said well on holidays and weekends if they were looking for Bo Barnes, they wouldn’t be able to find me!” 

A highlight of every year? Trying to beat Lisa in Plymouth out on the tool sale or compete with the neighboring Laurinburg Barnes store on their sales volume.

Bo and his wife, Vikki

“I really and truly liked the selling part,” Bo said. “We had a real competition between the Barnes stores around here. Laurinburg used to eat our lunch. We were always trying to outdo each other.”

Bo still works at the store, now managed by Jeff Patrick, as part-time counter help. But don’t think he’s resting on his laurels – he works a side yard service business and said he can’t even go down to the beach with his wife for more than three days until he gets the itch to get back to work.  

Bo has been married for 50 years to his wife Vikki and they have one son and three grandchildren. Bo told us he’s always been driven by three sayings throughout his life:

Choose the job that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

Early to bed, early to rise will make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. — And Bo added one out of three of those ain’t bad!

There’s no “I” in team. It takes a good team to be successful!

Bo wanted to specifically thank all his former and current Rockingham, Barnes, and Walker teammates for all the years of service. It was always a team effort!

We sure are glad that Bo took that delivery job almost 50 years ago and that he’s left – and continues – to leave such a legacy of hard work and teamwork at our Rockingham location. Congrats Bo on your 50-year milestone!