But it has done far greater than I even expected it to. “This store here is probably the biggest success story, even with A&P and everything,” he said. In the years since, Vest said Hometown Foods has outperformed what he could have imagined. He said, ‘If you’re still interested, let me know.’ Well, I called the bank right there to see what I could work out and – spoilers – it did work out for me.” So about two weeks later, my phone rang and it was him. He told me that his manager would come first at auction, which I understood. “I heard he was going to sell it,” Vest recalled. He managed that store for nine years.Īs Vest was so close at the time to the IGA and its owner, he was primed to purchase the business when it became available. After that store closed, he began a career with Piggly Wiggly in Ducktown, Tennessee, less than 10 miles from McCaysville. One of his last A&P ventures was a co-managing role in Wilkesburg, North Carolina. Vest continued his career managing different stores around the Southeast. “It sat empty for about seven years and a guy came through and he bought the building and he fixed it up. While there, his original A&P was damaged by flooding and shuttered. The location that now houses his IGA used to be an A&P Grocery, where Vest got his first job in 1981.Īfter graduating from high school, A&P moved him to the Charlotte, North Carolina, area to manage a store. Vest, who grew up in McCaysville, began his life in the grocery industry at a young age. Edward Vest and his wife, Lisa, have owned the picturesque mountain town’s sole grocery store for nearly 21 years. On the main street of McCaysville, Georgia, with the Tennessee border in its back yard, sits Hometown Foods IGA. Powered by meat department, store surpasses expectations
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