Something for everyone at Walnut Hill General Store
Published 3:54 pm Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
There’s a little bit of history and something for everyone at Walnut Hill General Store.
A ribbon cutting and grand opening was held at the store on June 3.
Located right next to Ernest Ward Middle School in the old Skipper’s and Bryan Grocery building, the family-run store holds a 1950s aesthetic with period coolers and items.
Owner Sandy Creverling said the idea was to have a little bit of everything in the store.
“We wanted to try and have a little bit of everything, but we know we’re not the typical general store that people remember back in the ‘50s,” Creverling said. “We tried to design the store with the aesthetics of the 1950s.”
The store offers customers an array of items, including home décor, antiques, kids toys and games, men’s knives, T-shirts, antique tools and throw-back colas and candies, to name a few.
Creverling said they did their research on the candies.
“We started back in the late 1800s with the coconut bars, the toffees and the candy bars,” she said. “When we labeled all of the candy, we put the year everything started.”
Creverling said the store also has newer products, including candles and flavored coffees.
“We just tried to fit the new with the old, and tried to have something for everybody,” she said.
The front of the store looks west over a large patch of farm pasture.
Creverling said with the big farming community that’s in the area, they tried to have some aprons, farming eggs and T-shirts to highlight the ag farmers.
“We want to support them in anyway we can,” she said. “When we moved here, we bought up to 30 acres and we lease the land to a local farmer whose father leased the same land.
“We just love what they do,” she added. “Each one of use benefit from (farming) each and every day.”
Pretty much everything in the store is for sale, with the exception of the props, Creverling said.
“Those are things we like to keep,” she said. “We have three shelves that came from the old Radio Shack building in Atmore. We have another piece in the back.”
Creverling said about two years ago, they bought the building with thoughts of what they could see there one day.
“We were selling a house, and that freed up some time,” she said. “Last June, we started to get really serious about it. We started getting things out and buying furnishings for the store to make it look older. We went on shopping trips.”
Creverling said they had a little bit of a delay from November to March (2023), where they contemplated what they wanted to do with the store.
Creverling said it was important for them, a family of three, including husband, Chris, and daughter, Emily, to display history.
“We like older things,” she said. “As a family, we collect antiques and vintage things. Throughout our traveling, anytime we get an opportunity to travel the back roads and stop in places like this, and hearing my mom’s stories when I grew up. My mom was born in Uriah, and as a small child, they’d walk to the store and get a RC cola and peanuts.”
“Then, she would pour her peanuts in her soda for a refreshing treat,” Emily said on the store’s Facebook page. “Hearing stories from Mom of the old rolling store were also a favorite. We knew how much we enjoyed visiting general stores when we travel through small towns, and we thought Walnut Hill General Store would be a great addition to our community.”
The store is located at 7540 Highway 97, Walnut Hill, FL. Operating hours right now are Thursday through Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.