DOOR COUNTY (NBC 26) — Dan Lalko, better known as 'Delivery Dan,' has become a familiar face at Tadych’s Marketplace in Sturgeon Bay. After seven years of delivering groceries and connecting with customers, the delivery driver is preparing to retire, marking the end of a chapter.
What started as a casual shopping trip turned into an unexpected opportunity that would keep him behind the store’s wheel for the next seven years.
We spoke with Dan today to learn more about his delivery driving journey and what's next after retirement. Watch below:
"I always shopped here. They had a sign on the door that said help wanted, and the rest is history," Dan Lalko, "Delivery Dan," said.
Seven years later, Delivery Dan is still going strong, bringing groceries and smiles to shoppers every day.
"Oh, because I'm a workaholic and I love people," Lalko said.
Before joining Tadych’s Marketplace, the 75-year-old spent his career as an executive banker in Manitowoc.
"I was primarily in lending, and so you get to know your customers and you get to know their needs. You care for their needs," Lalko said.
After closing the chapter on banking, Dan found a new way to connect with people at the Marketplace.
"Now this was kinda the same way with this. You learn what they want for groceries, what they need. You find out about their family, their health," Lalko said.
Dan says that with age and new adventures with his wife, Sue, on the horizon, it’s time to retire from deliveries.
"It's gonna be tough to retire, but it's getting time if I'm gonna do some other things," Lalko said.
But his wife, Sue, says that, knowing her husband, this probably isn’t the end of Delivery Dan just yet.
"I think he'll probably reinvent himself to a degree. I don't think the world has seen the end of delivery dan yet," Sue Lalko said.
Dan says that while he plans to retire at the start of the new year, he’ll still pitch in with deliveries whenever he can.
