rachelh@myweeklysentinel.com
LEROY — A&A Country Market is located off Route 414 in LeRoy. The goal of new owners, Billy Watts and Niki Castle-Marbaker, is to have a hometown-feel and support other local businesses. Billy and Niki were approached by Dave DeCristo, who owns the building, and who also let them know he had the space available for rent. “We decided we would take an adventure and jump into the store,” said Niki.
The name is A&A for Abbey and Allyson, their two daughters, who helped with opening the store and who Billy and Niki hope to leave the store to one day.
The business opened in December and is offering gas services, food and beverage, kerosene and more.
“We had customers asking about kerosene because they were tired of driving far away to get it,” said Niki.
Aside from kerosene, they also offer off-road diesel, diesel, DEF fluid and propane exchange.
The inside of the store dotes a wide array of snacks, drinks, tobacco products and items for outdoors and vehicles.
When it comes to products, if they don’t have it, they will look for it and try to make convenience a priority of theirs to LeRoy and the surrounding communities.
“If it’s possible we can find it, we do,” said Niki.
“We’ve heard a lot of locals say they’re happy we are here not even just for the gas, but so they can stop and grab a gallon of milk,” said Niki. “They keep asking us for more grocery items which we will try to do. It would be nice for us to do that so they don’t have to travel as far.”
Working with other local businesses is important to Billy and Niki.
“We are trying to stock local items. We currently sell Barefoot Pallets from Troy,”said Billy.
They also sell Mill Street Popcorn, coffee, roasted peanuts.
“We also have local maple syrup and honey,” said Niki.
They plan to add more local products onto their shelves for customers.
“We want to make it like a hometown and support as many local businesses as we can.”
They also like to keep their staff local as well, hiring high school students looking for jobs, using the career program through the school, or hiring local people who live close to the store.
Currently, A&A offers pizza and sub options for food. They plan to eventually add a full menu soon, which will include baked goods, fryer foods and more. Eventually, they’d like to offer ice cream.
Dumpster services at the location will remain. The cost for a sticker for the dumpster is $2.50/sticker and are available at the front counter.
Lottery will be resuming at this location at a later time.
Niki is from the Canton/LeRoy area, and Billy was introduced to the area in 2009 while working for an oil and gas company.
“We really like being part of the community and helping when we can. Having that personal touch with people is very important to us.
“We like keeping it small and personal, but we’re hoping to expand one day,” said Billy.
“We want to keep adding to it,” said Niki, referring to putting the deli back into the store, changing the kitchen out, as well as adding grocery items for local residents.”
Winter hours for the market are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays, and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturdays. Once summer comes, the hours will expand.
For more information, go to www.facebook.com/A-A-Country-Market or call 570-364-6633.