Mickey King (Michael J. King) is a fourth-generation leader and co-owner of Hays Supermarkets, serving as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Born into the Hays family legacy — his father Mike King helped expand the company — Mickey started at Hays at 14, cleaning parking lots and carrying out groceries.
Alongside brother Jon David (Jon) King and cousins, he helps steer Hays across Arkansas and Missouri. The chain’s roots run to 1906 in Oklahoma and 1935 in Blytheville, Arkansas — community grocery built for the same Delta/NEA map that produced Birdeye, Wynne, and the Quessenberry story.
For the Brothers Q, Mickey is not only the retailer who first put Sauce Beautiful and Spice Beautiful on Hays shelves at scale. He is a strategic partner through Q Sauce Kings — co-pack, labels, store placements, Edwards Food Giant orders, display-rack promises, and the day-to-day grind of getting product from plant to pallet. Lee Quessenberry is the brand conduit in that triangle: graphics, labels, compliance, and the web of vendors Mickey’s world depends on.
The greater Hays region is the alignment layer: regional independents and family chains where cousin-adjacent relationships and real handshakes still move cases — not national planogram theater alone.
