More than five years after Rick’s Country Store in Sassafras closed its doors for the final time, the location has welcomed Pointers Country Mart, with a soft opening held on Friday. The store opened its doors at 5 a.m. and a steady influx of customers started to roll in around 6:30 a.m.
“We are just excited,” said the Pointers Country Mart owner Niral Patel regarding the opening of the store.
Patel said there are not a lot of gathering places and wants to “provide a community place for people to hang out.”
He purchased the property in 2023. Soon afterward, he began renovations to reopen the country store. The store’s manager is Toni Wisen, daughter of John and Ellen Wilkinson, who were the previous owners of Belroi Marketplace. Wisen was also its store manager and worked there for 20 years. Rick and Martha Northstein, the previous owners of Rick’s Country Store, owned the location from 1991 to 2019.
“I feel great,” said Wisen about the store being open. “I am from this area and I thin...