Fried frog legs every Friday, sheets of plywood and 2x4s, freshly stocked bottles of Ale-8-One soda on ice, a tankful of gas, farm implements, green night-crawlers, ball-peen hammers and self-serve coffee for 85 cents. You can find it all at the Town and Country Minute Market LLC in Camargo.
The market is a vision transformed into reality by owner, Mike Martin, 59. In 2000, after being employed at the Sylvania plant in Winchester for 23 years, Mike cashed in his 401K retirement savings, mortgaged his home and took an entrepreneurial leap of faith to pursue his dream of creating a “one stop shop” that would serve his beloved community of Camargo, as well as all of Montgomery County.
Mike and his employees have created a place where staff and customers alike seem to have a strong and genuine bond.
“It’s the happiest place I’ve ever worked.” Those are the words of cashier, Denise Robbins, 47 of Camargo. She flashes a rapid-fire smile at every customer she greets.
Spend some time in the market’s deli and you will be hard-pressed to see a cell phone anywhere. Instead, you will see people connecting with one another the old-fashioned way: face-to-face.
The colorful cast of characters who frequent the market are as varied as the items on the shelves. Politicians, farmers, coon hunters, firefighters, truck drivers, factory workers and retirees gather at the heart of the mart: the deli. Many customers make several visits a day to the market, which has operated for nearly 19 years.