JD Vance’s old supermarket boss remembers him as an employee

More than two decades before he became a vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance was a cashier in Ohio at Middletown’s Dillman Foods.

Vance’s stint as a 17-year-old grocer influenced his political views. He wrote in “Hillbilly Elegy” that observing the habits of rich and poor shoppers and seeing how people “gamed the welfare system” with food stamps made him realize for the first time that liberal policies “weren’t all they were cracked up to be.”

Fast forward to now: A 40-year-old Vance will represent the Republican ticket at the vice presidential debate against Democrat Tim Walz on Tuesday night.

Steve Dillman, Vance’s boss at the grocery store, said Vance was a quiet, kind, typical teenager. When asked how he thinks Vance will perform in tonight’s debate, he told The Enquirer: “I think he’ll do well.”

“He was a boy next door from a neighboring family,” said Dillman, who knew Vance’s grandparents. “He was a good employee. He was honest. He was reliable. He was always in a good mood. Luckily for me, he was someone I didn’t have to babysit.”

Vance worked nights and weekends at the now-closed grocery store for a few months while attending Middletown High School, Dillman said. He walked the short distance from his grandmother’s house on McKinley Street to the grocery store on Central Avenue.

Dillman does not label himself as a Republican or Democrat. He plans to vote for Vance.

“This is a young man who comes from a difficult childhood, taken care of by his grandparents,” he said. “He joined the Marines. Came out, went to Ohio State. Got into Yale Law School… Now he’s a 40-year-old vice presidential candidate of the United States. I think it’s a pretty amazing story if you really break it down and don’t get political.”

Dillman, whose family owned supermarkets in Middletown for nearly 90 years, closed the Central Avenue store in 2014 due to declining sales, an increase in theft and competition from discount stores. It joined a wave of closed family-owned stores in Middletown.

“It’s a typical working-class town,” Dillman said of Middletown. “It’s changed. It took a few hits. It’s doing its best to recover now.”