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The Wytheville Enterprise
Jeffrey
Simmons
& By Wayne Quesenberry/Staff
Tue May 19, 2009
Bruce Shelton is expanding his
business. He is opening a general store next month at the former Bernard’s
store building on Bluegrass Trail in the Crandon area of Bland County.
“Business here has been pretty good,” noted Shelton, who owns and operates Bruce’s Market
in Bland. “We get a lot of customers from that area that drive by the store to
get here. Sammy Bernard approached me about a month ago about opening a store
there. I decided to do it.”
Sammy Jr. and Jeanette Bernard operated their business for 29 years. Before
that, Samuel Paul Bernard Sr. ran the store for 43 years.
“We’re excited about it for Bruce,”
Mrs. Bernard stated earlier this week. “We need a little grocery store down
this way.”
According to her, she and her
husband decided to close their business in September 2007. Sam Jr. is a mail
carrier and farmer.
“We just felt like it was time to
give it up,” Mrs. Bernard said.
When Bruce’s General Store opens
June 1, it will carry many of the supplies that Bernard’s Store did including
livestock feed and hardware items. Sliced meat and cheese, a variety of
groceries, milk, butter, ice cream, frozen food, soft drinks and cigarettes
will be among the inventory.
“Sammy had farm feed and a lot of
hardware supplies,” Shelton
pointed out. “I’ll carry about everything he did.”
Local farmer Kenneth May is
supportive of Shelton’s
operation. While he raises most of his own livestock feed, May said he will
patronize the store.
“It’s very convenient for us,”
stated May, who works part time at the 3300 Artesian water plant. “It’s about
two miles away.”
Bruce’s General Store will be open
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A couple of employees from the Bland store will staff the
new business with possibly two additional workers hired.
http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/shelton_to_reopen_crandon_store/news/5255/
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