Campbell's Convenience Store, 3800 Covenant Road: 1980s 12 comments
This building, at the entrance to Trenholm Park and now apparently a hair salon called Hair Works once housed a small independant convenience store. I am nearly sure it was called Campbell's, and I think it was the place to go for kids wanting a snack coming in or out of the park. It had all the standard soft drink, pork rind and motor oil options as well as magazines you wouldn't take home to mom, but there were no gas pumps.
I am guessing that it pre-dated the nearby Covenant Road Piggly Wiggly since otherwise it's hard to see what market it served, especially since (unless I'm recalling wrongly) it wasn't open particularly late at night. I imagine that the decline of kids coming and going unescorted as childhood as we knew it disappeared didn't help, but the final blow had to have been the opening of a chain store across the street (now a BP) with all the same stuff, chain purchasing power and gas pumps.
12 Responses to 'Campbell's Convenience Store, 3800 Covenant Road: 1980s'
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Dennis
7 Jan 09 at 4:37 pm
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Played Pop Warner football at Trenholm Park in late '60's and early '70's. After practice my mom would let us run into this little store and get something to drink. Don't remember the name of the store though...
Bobby
15 Jan 09 at 10:19 am
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I don't know when it dropped the "Mini Mart" affiliation, so that must have been before I moved to Columbia, but it was still functioning as "Campbell's" as late as 2002.
badger
28 Jan 09 at 3:07 pm
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I use to hang out at the Mini Mart when I was a kid. It's sad that it's no longer there. Thank goodness that The Other Store is still kicking.
Tim
28 Jan 09 at 11:35 pm
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I think the "Mini Mart" evolved into "Campbell's" around '93 or so. This was the center for all nearby kid and teen social life in the 80s. We used to walk there as kids, first for Empire Strikes Back cards, then for comic books (decent selection), and later to hook up with weed (some would show up eventually). I pumped more into the video games there than any kid should have been allowed to. It really lost something once the park started to die. The neighboring BP (then a pantry) didn't kill it, it had none of the charm or local color. I think Wayne, the owner eventually sold out when the park started getting sketchy.
Chris
28 Jan 09 at 11:38 pm
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does anyone know what is at 3800 two notch road at this time. there was once a drive in movie theatre there and wanted to know if you can still tell where it was.
countrycuz
6 Feb 09 at 7:33 am
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Curiously enough, I just did a post on that here.
ted
6 Feb 09 at 11:54 am
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When they used to hold the city swim meets at the inddor pool, I used to go here and pick up UFO magazines between swimming heats.
tonkatoy
27 Jan 11 at 7:53 am
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I remember a Campbell's drugstore located across the street from this location. I don't know if the two are related. My buddies and I would go there every Saturday and read the comic books. One of them even went as far to shoplift them and got caught by the owner. I'm not sure if I ever went back there after being associated with him.
joelc
24 May 13 at 12:07 am
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Ravenwood Pharmacy was definitely across the street.
ted
24 May 13 at 12:24 am
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My memory is becoming clearer now. I now remember a Campbell's Drug on Two Notch, just down from the old Atlantic Thrift and across from the motel. The place became Franks in later years. My Mother used to take me to Campbells for corndogs and hotdogs in the early 60's. The store had an old fashioned telephone booth in the back. I used to enjoy my food in the booth. Invariably, someone needed the booth to make a call.
Does anyone remember Romanstein's grocery store on Two Notch? It was located close to School House Road. It was really more of a general store.
joelc
4 Jun 13 at 1:11 am
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I played a lot of double dragon here in summer of 1987
chris
24 Jun 16 at 6:26 pm
How many popsicles were bought in there on hot afternoons on the way to and from Trenholm Park?
When I was in first or second grade or so, that building was a Mini Mart, complete with the big red letters, the slab roof that extends and forms a sort of porch, and two gas pumps. I took this picture today of the one on South Kilbourne -- I guess it's the last one in town. This is almost exactly how the one at the end of Covenant Road looked.