The “information center” of Hamersville is celebrating 25 years in business.
Family, friends and customers gathered at McKinney Mart on May 15 to mark the anniversary of the McKinney family opening for business.
“I bought the property in 1995 from a lady who wanted to go to Vegas. I had intentions of opening a store, but I ended up selling it to my son (Scott) and his wife (Debbie) and they’ve done real well with it,” said longtime Hamersville businessman Charlie McKinney.
When asked how it felt to have four generations of his family standing in front of the building for a picture, Charlie said “It’s hard to explain, really. I’m very proud. You look back and see that the kids have been pretty successful and I was glad to be a part of it.”
Charlie’s son Scott McKinney and his wife Debbie have been owners of the store since it opened 25 years ago.
“It’s great. We’ve been blessed,” said Scott. “We live really close to here and our kids went to school in Hamersville and they would come in here to work and be prosperous. To be able to do that for a whole lifetime is precious.”
When asked how many employees have passed through the doors in 25 years, Scott said that the number was actually quite low.
“Debbie has three or four girls that have been with her almost since we opened. We’ve probably only had 15 or 20 people work for us in that time because they stay for so long. We’ve been very lucky,” he said.
When asked what it was about the store that keeps people coming back, Scott said “I think it’s Debbie. There have been some very successful businessmen in the county that said that they wouldn’t come to Hamersville and try to compete with Debbie.”
Debbie was a bit more modest when asked the same question.
“They come in here for the coffee and conversation. I have really loyal customers that believe in us,” she said. “We don’t gossip, but we do some socializing. We call it the information center.”
Debbie also said she was grateful to her customers.
“I feel very fortunate that everybody still comes in. We have competition and it’s nice to see the loyalty to a small mom and pop store like us,” she said.
Brown County Chamber of Commerce President Lynn Harden was on hand to honor McKinney Mart for achieving 25 years in business.
“This is huge because most small businesses don’t live beyond five years. The fact that a business like McKinney Mart can last 25 years and will obviously go on longer is an ideal situation for where we would love all of our businesses to go in Brown County,” Hardin said,
Reagan McKinney was 14 years old when her parents bought the building and built the business.
“What I remember most from 1995 when they bought this is that they would both come here after their day jobs on nights and weekends and they renovated completely on their own,” she said. “I even helped paint the place at age 14 along with my ten year brother.”
Reagan also said that she became very familiar with the “information center” activities as a teenager.
“As much as my mom was here, my mom knew what I had done on Friday night before I got out of bed on Saturday morning,” she said. “A lot of information flows through here, but it’s positive. Everybody watches out for people. I can’t tell you how many times she’s seen somebody’s dog running loose and she runs it home because she knows who it belongs to.”
When asked about the success of her parent’s business, Reagan said “It’s really been built from the foundation up off of really hard work. My mom is here at 5:30 in the morning and sometimes will stay until 11 o’clock at night. She treats people like family and she knows them by their first name. I really believe in my heart that people come in here to see Debbie.”
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