Employee Spotlight

Meet Terry Balko
Employee Spotlight July 2026

Our employee spotlight this month is our meat manager in St. Clair, Terry Balko, who celebrated his 5th year with us in June. Terry’s senior staff recognize his ready to work attitude and willingness to jump into new projects like our summer “Brat Shop”. Terry not only set up his case but worked with local brewery, War Water, for his beer brats. His fellow employees and customers appreciate his good manner and he gets compliments such as “Terry cut me these beautiful steaks” or thanking him for making them something special.

Terry appreciates best, how family oriented Neiman’s Family Market is, giving employees a work-life balance and the best part of his job is being the leader of his own team. He takes pride in his work with his proudest moments being told “Good job, Terry.” The best advice he can give new hires at Neiman’s is to “watch, listen and ask questions”.

Terry grew up in Harrison, Michigan wanting to be an Underwater Welder and being called “Tear Bear”, while he played with his favorite toy the Tonka Truck Bulldozer. Raw Sushi is Terry’s least favorite food, salmon with rice and veggies would be the one meal he could eat for the rest of his life and the oldest thing in his refrigerator is baking soda.

Top Gun, is the movie title that Terry says best describes his life and “Talk to me Goose”, his favorite line from a movie. He is not all about Tom Cruise because his favorite movie is a Dennis Quaid classic, The Rookie. If switching lives with a cartoon character was an option, Terry would trade with Bugs Bunny because, “he’s got the life”.

At home, Terry has a cat, Izzy, and a hamster, Big Chung” but his whole world are his two daughters, Ariana and Charlotte. The girls are the one thing he says he could not live without. The best place he has traveled was Disney, “it makes you feel like a kid again” and he would like to go to, Isle of Man, for the races. You might be surprised to learn that Terry is a master level pool player, and he is a secret fan of July 2026 bride, Taylor Swift! When not at work, Terry enjoys motorcycles, sports cars, concerts or his favorite sport baseball.

Thank you to Terry, his meat department employees and all Neiman’s Family Market employees who work everyday to serve our customers!