For so many years we have thought of owning our own business. Both of our mothers were entrepreneurs starting several successful small businesses so as we say in the south, "It is in our blood".

Originally conceived as a small outdoors living shop as we began developing the idea it morphed into a mercantile themed business to allow for a broader offering of merchandise. Lynn's boutique idea become home décor, antique items, and a quaint meeting space. Benjie's outdoors idea became a surplus line, firearms and ammo, and a destination for outdoors enthusiasts of all kinds.

Our 'brick and mortar' location is literally that! We found the location at first while looking for a rental property. The building belonged to a family member of Benjie and was situated adjacent to the newest and busiest shopping center in Poplarville. When we inquired about renting the building we were told it was not for rent at the time because it was up for sale. Discouraged we went along looking for other suitable location.

As fate would have it, many of the locations we looked at were either not suitable for our changing needs or were rented out just as we would inquire about them. This led us to go back to the original building and start discussing the potential purchase.

After several months of work with the City of Poplarville and numerous board meetings we were finally able to get the appropriate zoning completed and a contract to purchase in June 2020. With the contract we could start preparing for the development of our new business, River Road Mercantile.

We chose River Road Mercantile to tie in as many local themes into the business.

First, as we are in Pearl River County, Mississippi we thought the 'River' part of the name would help place the business in many local and visitors minds. We have many weekend residents and transplants for the Greater New Orleans area that gladly espouse to their friends and family back home that they own property in Pearl River County. We felt that if we were able to capitalize on this idea it would basically be free advertising!

Secondly, we are within a few hundred feet of Pearl River Community College affectionately know as 'The River" by students and alumni so that was a no brainer. But the second part of the PRCC connection is that The main entrance to PRCC is known as 'River Road'! Again, free advertising!

Another connection we considered was that all great rivers have a River Road. The Pearl River is no different as MS Highway 43 that winds its way along the eastern side of the Pearl River is is locally known as the River Road. As we are only 20 miles to the east of this highway and Washington Parish, Louisiana we wanted to invite all of the friends and family along both sides of the river to be our guests.

The Mercantile term had become such a hot item with the TV shows presenting it and numerous businesses popping up all around the country we saw the opportunity to bring that to Poplarville. Having grown up in Poplarville with several businesses that fit the term mercantile without saying it we felt that we could pay homage' to the business owners who came before us.

Check back as we begin to develop our business and be part of something new and exciting both for Poplarville and online! We can not wait to meet you!

When we sat down and started thinking of branding and our logo it was harder than we thought. We spent countless hours looking though online logos, searching for established business logos, and talking with friends and family. We were wanting to come up with something that would be reminiscent of an old time mercantile store with the flair and modern appeal that would catch the eye of the modern rural home shopper.

We first settled on a black and white simple pallet to bring the old feel into the design. The simple colors would be transferrable to almost any item easily and would give that warm, hometown feeling from simpler times.

Our design team worked with us to incorporate many features to tie together the customers and area to bring out the vision we had. The scroll work was inspired by the French influence with our close proximity to the New Orleans area and all of the local residents with that lineage.

The two decorative lines above and blow the word MERCANTILE were added to tie in the railroad tracks that helped put Poplarville on the map as a stop along the route from Birmingham, AL and New Orleans, LA. The lines also tie in Poplarville's location along US Highway 11 and later Interstate Highway 59. The influence of these transportation routes can not be underestimated as a driving force that kept Poplarville viable for all these years.

We also wanted to put the name of our beloved small town in our logo for all of the world to see. This along with adding our established date is to let everyone know that we are proud of where we came from and that we are here to stay.