|
||||
  
 
 |
Country store is the heart of Newton By
Katrina Cartwright NEWTON -- If a stranger wanted to know what living in this town was like, all he'd have to do is hang out in Bep's Country Market for a day. The store is only a couple decades younger than the town itself. Across from town hall and the library on one side and the post office on the other, Bep's is the only store in town. It has a little bit of everything, including penny candy, says its new owner Beckie Griffin. "I have kids that come in every day - big kids, like 30 or 40-year-old men that come and get their penny candy for the day," she said. "We have a lot of regulars." Bep's is a focal part of the town. Griffin joked that her mom missed the store and its patrons more than Griffin herself after her last visit. Beckie and her husband Cleon bought the business, which has had a variety of names in its history, including The Corner Market, Sandy's and The Cracker Barrel, in December. Bep was Beckie's nickname growing up, which is where the name for the store came from. "All my friends called me Bep," she said. "I've always wanted to buy a store. It's very old, but I like it." To say the store is old is somewhat of an understatement. It was built by a man named William Barker in the 1920s and has stood through the Depression, World War II and the terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Griffin was going through the basement after she bought the store, she was thrilled to find some old trinkets, including price tags touting meat for pennies a pound, point tags from the Depression and cigarette licenses dating back to 1932. The store has changed since it first began, including some major remodeling. For example, half of the store was torn off, moved and had a house made out of it about 30 years ago, Griffin said. That portion has since been rebuilt. It was once a butcher shop and had toys, Levis and shoes as well as food. It also once had a restaurant attached to it. "It was a regular little grocery and department store," Griffin said. Max Cooley, who was born and raised in Newton, remembers growing up with the store. "You could get anything you wanted at any time of year," he said. "I had a better chance of finding an odd-sized screw at that store than I did going into Smithfield or Logan." The Griffins have done a good deal of changing themselves. "Most people will tell you we've changed it a lot," she said. "We've pulled it apart and moved it around. We're still moving and trying to accommodate everyone." Now the store has food, drinks, shakes, video rentals and even homemade pizza on the weekends. It also features locally made products, including birdhouses and "Crops" Wheat Snacks made by Wes Roundy from Cache Junction. "They bring back memories because that's what people ate growing up," Griffin said. "I like to have things that encourage the townspeople to come out." Bep's has a new Visa machine and even its own "guard fish" that lives on the checkout counter, Griffin said. Griffin gets most of her supplies from Wal-mart, except her candy, which she gets from Pocatello. She said she has big plans for the store's future. She hopes to soon have crafts, scrapbooking materials and basic supplies for people who quilt, as well as fishing and tackle supplies. In the distant future, she wants to make a game room in the back where the restaurant used to be. Beckie said she loves the store, which is a good thing because she is there from open to close, 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday -- with few exceptions. Cleon works at Utah State University but helps out at the store when he has time, and Beckie has someone help her with the pizzas, but other than that, she is the one running the market. "Most days I'm the one that everybody gets to see," she said. Bep's hasn't yet shown a profit, but Griffin said she considers it a success. "We took over in the slow season and since it's warmed up we've gotten a lot more business," she said. "We haven't pulled a profit from it yet, but that usually takes three years, and I knew that going into it. I think it's successful." Any stranger who wanders into Bep's Country Market will get a good idea of what Newton is all about, whether it is by talking to the patrons or reading the community bulletin board hanging on the wall. "If you want to know about Newton, just hang out here for a day," Griffin said.
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||