Simmons-Wright Company Store

While customers can no longer pay in cotton, the Simmons-Wright Company Store has changed very little over its more than hundreds of years in business selling farm goods and consignment items from its small highway storefront. 

Walking into the Simmons-Wright Company Store is like taking a step back in time. The dim interior is still lit by exposed hanging bulbs which illuminate a jam-packed collection of assorted tools, knick-knacks, and foods. The original store was built on the spot in 1885 to cater to the Old Dixie Highway that once ran through Mississippi. In those days the shop operated a saw and wheat mill that serviced the cotton farmers in the area who were allowed to pay off any tab they built up using the very cotton from their fields. The inventory was displayed across the large one room store, grouped by general use.

The original store burnt to the ground in 1926, but a new building was made of brick to replace it. It is this building that stands today, changed little from its original incarnation. The store now has two stories although the sales floor is still held in the large main room. The wares have not changed much either, local seed is still displayed on racks near aging shovels and and other hand tools. They also now sell antiques that they likely would have once sold as new. There is also now a cafe attached to the store that celebrates the age in which the store was built.