Smithville Opens Their First Grocery Store Since 2011

SMITHVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s what people in the small town of Smithville have waited and prayed for for seven years, a grocery store.

For many cities, seeing people check out at the grocery line is a normal site.

For Smithville residents, it’s something they haven’t seen since 2011, after an EF-5 tornado damaged their grocery store beyond repair.

“We have needed a place where we can go and get ground beef and vegetables and fruit,” said Town Clerk, Kim Johnson.

As of yesterday, residents now only have to drive down the street to their new Discount Grocery and Variety Store, and everyone seems to be excited.

“We are just tickled to death for it,” said Mayor, Earl Wayne Cowly. “I’ve been telling everybody I see we got a grocery store coming.”

Residents were having to drive to either Amory or Fulton for their groceries.

“We have lots of elderly people here that may not be able to drive,” said Cowley. “Most of the time, maybe if you were going to fix lunch or dinner or whatever and you need some potatoes or tomatoes, you had to drive to Amory or Fulton going to pick it up. We will have that here.”

That along with canned foods, frozen foods, and the various items you find in your larger grocery stores is giving Smithville something for the whole town to take pride in, and they’re spreading the word.

“We put our… the little flyer up yesterday, and just overnight we had 7,000 views,” said Johnson. “So everybody is excited for us. We had some of our disaster recover people from FEMA comment on it, saying ‘excellent economic development,’ so a lot of people are excited for Smithville.”

At first, the store almost didn’t provide the option of fresh produce and meat, but the town convinced the owner there was a need.

They sold out of meat yesterday, and the owner has tripled his original order.

Smithville, congratulations.