A few country stores still exist, even now in 2025 but mostly in small towns where the large corporate chains can't justify opening a store. Because of the small profits associated with selling groceries, some of the country store traits have come full circle like selling gas or establishing a relationship with gasoline retailers to provide discounts on gas as incentives to buy groceries. Historically, country stores provided food stuffs that were grown on local farms.
I don't have memories of Mom buying groceries until about 1953-1954 when she started going to a new large Winn Dixie on Freedom Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina. Winn Dixie was one of many chains of mega stores that were opening in the Charlotte area at the time. But even when she started shopping in the Winn Dixie, Mom still relied on the local country store to keep her from having to drive the longer distance to buy a few items.
Even before there was a country store that influenced my day-to-day life, I remember visiting my aunt Pat in Florida. At the time she and uncle Hal operated one. Their store had a porch on three sides and an apartment upstairs.
The first time I remember a country store in my life was about 1954. It was Bostic’s Esso in the Paw Creek of Charlotte. It was a combination service station and grocery store. It carried the normal day to day fare - milk, eggs, bread, soft drinks and some canned goods. They also had a cooler for cheese and a few meats. Of course, there were the normal essentials like candy and ice cream.
The service station part of the store carried oil, filters and performed minor maintenance. They also sold and installed tires. The biggest issue to this part of the store was the operator having the time to perform the necessary services while continuing to watch the store. Typically, there wasn't sufficient volume to hire someone to handle the service station services. Like Aunt Pat's store, it had an apartment upstairs.
My first pocket knife came from Bostic's and cost $1.00. This was also the store where I was going to pick up a loaf of bread when I was hit by a car in 1954, but that is another story. In 1960, this was the store where I bought ice cream during the snow storms that occurred every Wednesday in March over the Piedmont and western North Carolina. This was the store where I sold soft drink bottles to earn money to go to the movies. So, even in the 1950's and 1960's, this country store was a part of day to day life.
In 1961, we moved from Paw Creek to the Wilgrove area on the opposite side of Charlotte. The first thing I noticed about the location of the house was its proximity to a church, about 100 yards and its proximity to a county store, about 150 yards.
The country store was Arrant's Esso. Like Bostic's it carried same normal fare in regards to most food stuffs but had a few differences in that it carried hoop cheese, a large wheel of cheese coated in wax. It was sliced to meet the needs of the customer. They also had a butcher shop that processed a side of beef every week. It was then cut up and packaged to meet the needs of the customer. There was also a service station component providing gasoline and tire services. Unlike Bostic's there were no other automotive maintenance services.
When I was fourteen and fifteen, Dad allowed me to have two hunting dogs. I relied on Arrants to provide bones and beef tallow, a hard beef fat, for my dogs.
In 1965, when I needed tires for my 1957 Chevy, Joe Arrant ordered them from the tire distributor and allowed me to pick them up so there wouldn't be a delivery charge. He then allowed me to mount and balance the tires so that I could avoid those charges. When I started working full time after graduation, Joe Arrant let me carry a tab (credit) for my gasoline, allowing me to pay on pay day.
In about 2005, when the shoe factory where my sister-in-law worked closed, she bought a small country store near Morganton, North Carolina. This store carried a few groceries including fresh produce from the local farmers but overall carried fewer groceries than the other country stores. She sold Exxon gasoline but didn't provide any automotive tires or maintenance even though the store was equipped for those services. Instead, she sublet the auto service part of the store to a local mechanic.
One of the special aspects of her country store was that it included a deli/sandwich shop. It sold soft drinks, coffee, tea and various fresh-made sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers. In the winter, she also carried chili and soup to compliment the normal sandwich fare. Her store was a gathering spot for the local farmers, serving up the country version of today's social media.
She was forced to sell the store when someone ran off of the road and hit the store, partially knocking it off of the foundation. You might think the driver’s insurance would have paid for the repairs, but he didn't have insurance. He was driving his father's farm truck and through a twist of North Carolina laws, his father's insurance didn't have to pay.
When my wife and I moved into our current house in 1973, I encountered another country store at the corner of Idlewild Road and Margaret Wallace Road. It was operated by two sisters. They sold the bread, canned goods, milk and gasoline. Like others, the brand of gasoline was Esso. The building is still there and has been as fabric shop, carpet store and is currently a smoke shop selling all kinds of tobacco products.
You may have noticed that a common thread for these country stores was their association with Esso/Exxon.
While researching old country stores for this story, it became evident that Esso was the predominate brand of gasoline sold in the Southeast and much of the East Coast. Esso frequently supplied the stores with pumps, signage, and branded products.
