When Paula Dyson first moved to Johnson County from Texas in 1995, the first place she went to purchase food was a family-run grocery store on Smith Valley Road.
In 1996, a tornado destroyed Hampton’s Market, but as soon as the store reopened on the other side of Smith Valley Road, Dyson was back. Since then, she has been a routine customer at the grocery store.
Hampton’s Market is closing permanently next month. The grocery story, which Goebel Hampton and his son, Keith Hampton, opened in 1974 near Smith Valley and Morgantown roads, will close July 29, with the deli closing July 8.
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As more and more supermarkets have opened in Johnson County, especially along State Road 135, the family-run grocery store has struggled to maintain its customer base. Their competitors have the ability to offer larger selections and cheaper prices, said Shannon Hoover, the deli manager at Hampton’s Market.
“It has been hard the past few years with Meijer, Kroger and Walmart moving in,” Hoover said. “People aren’t buying groceries like they used to.”
When customers come in and see that an item such as laundry detergent costs a couple dollars more than the price at a national chain supermarket, that often deters them from coming back, even though they’ve managed to keep prices comparable on many items, Hoover said.
What has kept the grocery store running over the years have been its selection of freshly cooked deli food and custom cuts of meat, Hoover said.
“They know what a good cut of meat is,” said Dallas Colich, a southside resident who has been coming to the grocery store for about 15 years.
On Wednesday afternoon, most of the customers in the store were lined up in front of either the deli or the meat counter.
Dyson purchased ground beef, pork cutlets, chicken breasts and beef roast, which she intends to freeze and use over the course of the summer.
The quality of the meat is what kept her coming back, Dyson said. She’s not sure where she’ll shop once the grocery store closes, she said.
Willard Messer said he’s been a customer at the grocery store for three decades.
“It’s good food, and it’s hard to beat,” he said.
He was purchasing baloney and liver at the deli. Having the family-owned grocery store on Smith Valley Road has been a benefit to community members who would otherwise have to drive to stores on State Road 135, Messer said.
“I hate to see stores close in the community,” he said.
Donna Sue Hampton had been running Hampton’s Market since her husband, Keith Hampton, died last July. The couple had been running the store since Keith Hampton’s father passed away in 2006.
Hoover, who has worked at the store for two decades, says the most meaningful part of working at a locally-owned grocery store has been the connections she has been able to make with the customers. The kids who were once coming in to shop with their parents are now coming in with families of their own, she said.
“What I will miss most is the customers,” Hoover said. “I know their names, their kids, their grandkids. We are like a family here.”
