New Owner Will Assume Operation Of Layne’s Store
After being run by the same family for more than 70 years, an iconic roadside Rockbridge County store is changing hands.
Layne’s County Country Store, a longtime purveyor of jams, jellies, country ham and hoop cheese, has been sold.
“We’re ready to retire,” said Steve Layne who has been running the store since 2012 with his wife, Angie Layne. “We’ve decided it’s time.”
The store got its start in 1954 as Layne’s Grocery. Phyllis Layne bought the business for her husband, Carlton Layne, as a wedding present.
“She joked that she bought the store because Dad had just gotten out of the Army and she knew he ‘needed a job,’” said son Michael Layne who now lives is Ashland. Michael Layne is part owner of the store.
The first, much smaller store was about yards north of the current location near Natural Bridge on U.S. 11. Even as young boys, Michael and Steve were expected to help out at the store. Once the brothers were off the school bus, they’d head for the store to have a snack. When snack time was over, work began. They had to stock the beverage coolers before they were allowed to go play with their friends.
“We played most days until about 8 p.m., and then we had to come back to the store and stock the soda and beer coolers again, take out the trash, and sweep or mop the store floor,” said Michael Layne. “It taught us that hard work and hard play is a good combination. It made us feel good to help our parents and still play every day with some friends.”
The store sold a lot of different items while Phyllis and Carlton Layne were the owners.
“It’s been through a lot of different things,” said Angie Layne. She remembered that at one time the store sold a full line of leather goods including boots, belts, purses and gun holsters. Furniture was also in the inventory at one time, as were novelty lamps.
Layne’s Grocery was a popular stop for customers in the fall seeking seasonal fruit.
“We used to sell several hundred bushels of apples a year,” said Michael Layne. “Some of them came from the 130 trees we had up at the house beside the VDOT location at Fancy Hill. I remember picking white peaches, pears, and many types of apples as a kid and teenager. Steve and I used to shine every apple by hand before they could be sold retail at Layne’s or wholesale to Quality Supermarket in Buena Vista.”
At Christmastime the store sold stereos, TVs, toys and kitchen appliances. Michael Layne recalled that every Christmas Eve after the store closed, his parents would go around the store and gather up all the toys, cakes and fruit baskets, enough to fill up the bed of their father’s pickup truck.
“Mom or Dad would then gather up us kids and drive to several houses in the community where very poor families lived,” Michael Layne said. “I remember Mom or Dad knocking on the door and saying ‘Merry Christmas’ with all of us loaded with presents for the kids, the parents, and even grandparents of the homes.”
Under the ownership of his parents, Steve Layne remembered that the store never closed. “Dad opened it 365 days a year,” he said.
Wintry weather did not impede store operations. When snow was in the forecast, Carlton Layne would drive a farm tractor home and then back to the store the next day. The store was also open on every holiday. Family dinners on Thanksgiving and Easter took place at 9 p.m. after the store closed.
Phyllis Layne died in October 1999. With the encouragement of the community and his loyal customers, Carlton Layne continued on as owner of the store, assisted by his family.
When he died in March 2012, the store closed for a few days until Steve and Angie Layne took over running the business. One thing Angie Layne made clear when she and her husband assumed the daily operations of the store was that the store would be closed on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. “To me, they’re family days,” she said.
They have closed for vacations also. “It’s easier that way,” Angie Layne said. “We tried vacations with somebody running it for us, but we were constantly on the phone so it wasn’t a vacation for us.”
Steve and Angie Layne have added new products to the store, including moonshine and Virginia wines. But it’s the country store staples like country ham and hoop cheese that keep the customers coming. Several years ago the store’s country ham sandwich placed sixth in a state-wide contest. After a segment on the award-winning sandwich aired on WDBJ-7, costumers flooded the store to try it. And while they were waiting for their sandwiches to be made, they’d pick up a few other things too.
“There are very few people who come in who don’t buy our hoop cheese,” Angie Layne said. She noted that campers at KOA will sometimes come in on a Friday to buy the cheese to take home with them and will return on Sunday before leaving the area because it’s all been eaten.
“We get people from all over the world,” said Angie Layne. “There was a woman in here from Brazil the other day.”
Although running the store has been a labor of love for the Laynes, they came to conclusion that operating the market was more than they could handle now that they are in the 60s. Minding the store means working 12 to 15 hours days seven days a week.
The Laynes do have a buyer. Michael Mc-Cabe takes over on Sept. 1. The Laynes say that they are willing to help him out during the transition.
They would very much like to see as many of their customers as possible while they’re still there. The store’s physical address is 9 Reservation Loop, Glasgow, but it can be found right on U.S. 11 north of Fancy Hill.
