The Company Store
Leaving the Drugstore, we pass
through a doorway to find ourselves at the front of the
Company Store. It was a very large place. It occupied at
least half of the second floor of the Hall and ran the
full length of the building.
The best way to describe the Company Store is to say
that it was a smaller version of a Wal-Mart store today.
It was way before its time. It had many more items for
sale than a typical small town general store of that
era. It was a combination hardware, furniture, grocery,
clothing, shoe and sporting goods store, all under one
roof.
There was no other store anywhere close to Pacolet
that had the variety and quantity of things for sale
that the Company Store had. In looking back, there were
almost no stores in the city of Spartanburg that had the
variety of things it did. Probably, the only store that
could have come close to matching it would have been a
Sears store. Spartanburg did have a Sears but I don’t
think that it was opened until the early 1950’s.
As a child, I remember my parents taking me to the
Company Store to buy me shoes and boots, usually when
school started. (Many children, myself included, went
barefooted almost all of the time from about May 1 until
the first day of school in the fall.)
When I came to the store with my parents for other
things, I always left them to go and look at the sports
equipment, particularly the baseball gloves and bats.
The store also sold all sorts of fishing equipment, and
if I remember correctly, rifles and shotguns, .22
bullets and shotgun shells. I think that you could also
order coal for your fireplace and ice for an icebox at
the store.
The back part of the store was a large area devoted
to food and groceries of all kinds. Before World War II
and during it, many folks at Pacolet Mills did not have
a car. As a result, the Company Store offered a delivery
service for your groceries. You bought your groceries
and the store would take them home for you. Most folks
had walked to the store. I don’t know if they rode home
with their groceries or not.
I don’t remember it, but during the depression, the
Mill Company sometimes paid their employees with their
own script. These paper coupons could be used in the
company store just like money.
Mill employees could easily get a charge account at
the store. They could charge items during the week and
this amount would be subtracted from their pay on pay
day. The story is often told of families new to the Mill
and not used to this system would charge too much.
Unless they were careful, they would always be in debt
to the Company Store. That would not be unlike the
situation that many folks find themselves with credit
cards today.
Glendale Mills also had a Company Store. For an
inside look at it, click on http://glendalesc.com/store.html.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.