PLANO — After 60 years, Campbell’s Grocery in western Morgan County closed its doors for a final time Saturday.
The grocery store near the hamlet of Plano has been a fixture in owner and operator Shirley Campbell's life the past 56 years.
The store opened its doors in 1957, operated by a family member, before Campbell took over in 1961.
“I’ve got three great-grandbabies. I need to spend some time with my family. It’s been hard to do that when you work six days a week. You go to church, and you don’t have much time there on Sundays,” Campbell said.
Campbell said changes in the needs of grocery shoppers also factored into her decision to close the store. No one else was interested in operating the store after she called it quits, she said.
"Now they’ve got Peapod and Amazon delivering right to the doors, so times have changed. It’s not like it used to be,” Campbell said.
Although other options for groceries do exist, the die-hards continued to patronize the shop. Some made sure to find their way to Campbell’s for one last bottle, ice cold from a vintage Coca-Cola machine complete with attached bottle cap opener. One customer sang Campbell’s praises, telling the store owner how much she'd enjoyed the Shirley burger she'd picked up earlier that week.
When Campbell made the announcement the store was closing, regulars told her, “You can’t close. We’ll miss you.”
Campbell said she had mixed emotions on the final day of the store’s operation.
“It’s hard to not be with people, but as long as I’m able to get out and see people and stop by I can go help others, because there’s a lot of others that are handicapped, in nursing homes, on dialysis, bedridden and stuff. They have to (have) somebody to entertain their day and stuff, too. You like to bring some joy to somebody else,” Campbell said.
Some of those in need of the company of Campbell are her relatives. Campbell’s niece lost her husband earlier this year, and her mother — Campbell’s sister — three years before.
Campbell said her greatest joy, working at the store, was meeting people and getting to know her customers. Campbell has a knack for remembering customers and who they’re related to, which can catch some younger customers off guard.
“They’re surprised a lot of times, because they come in and I say, ‘You used to live around here, didn’t you?’ ‘Well, yeah, but you don’t remember us.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, I think I do.’ I’ll say ‘I think you belong to this family over there.’ There’s just so many people like that over the years,” Campbell said.
Campbell said she plans to continue connecting with the people around her; it’s what drives her.
And while her days behind the counter of Campbell’s Grocery may have come to an end, the memories will remain for Campbell — and for the shoppers over the six decades at the store.