On the morning of their first anniversary sale in the fall of 2011, Mervin Troyer sat in the back of his family’s convenience store, double checking inventory and unsure what to expect. At breakfast that morning, the Troyer family nervously weighed the possibility that no one would show up. But, to their surprise, over an hour before the store opened, cars pulled up the long gravel hill to the parking lot, one-by-one.
“They kept coming, and they kept coming,” said Mervin, the family’s youngest son, 11 years old at the time. “Of course, pressure kept mounting and mounting. So, we opened the doors and this place was just packed.”
The family recalled more than 1,000 people walking into their store that day and walking out with bags filled full of discounted goods. The sale marked the first of many.
Just more than a year before that day in 2009, John and Martha Troyer, along with their six children — Marlene, Wayne, Linda, Leroy, Michael and Mervin — packed their things from their home in the Amish Heartland of Ohio and made their way to Upstate New York.
The family wanted to enter the farming business, and Upstate New York provided a large Amish farming community and lots of available land.
“Despite all the negative things people say,” said John, “I still think America is the land of opportunity for those who are willing to work and get their hands dirty.”
In Ohio, the family ran a tarp shop, making covers for hoop barns, but left the business to buy a 200-acre farm in the town of Fenner. From April through September of that year, the family built Troyer’s Country Store with their own hands.
Now, after celebrating their seventh anniversary, the store acts as a go-to shopping destination for residents from all over the Upstate area. The most popular section is the deli, where the line often stretches from the cold glass case filled with food to the very front of the store. Customers can request freshly sliced meats, turkey, ham, and cheeses — Swiss, American and provolone — as well as order custom sandwiches on the spot.
The family rises every morning at different times depending on the chores that need to be done, such as milking the cows and baking goods for the store. At 7:30 a.m., they all gather for breakfast, eating Martha’s health-focused cooking. Martha feeds “a small army” every day, said John, while he takes of the “lowly position of dishwasher.”
Over the years, Mervin, now 18, began managing the store daily along with his older sister Marlene. As his older brothers went on to work on dairy farms and become self-employed and his older sister went on to become a school teacher, Mervin stayed close to home. His morning tasks include baking fresh breads and pastries for the store. “He’s the main guy around here,” his father John said.
Mervin’s distinctly outgoing personality endeared him to their customers, many often going beyond shopping and conversing about the how the store is doing or sharing news about their families.
“I’ve been coming here since it opened,” said regular customer John Schoeck. “I would say they are friends of the family. They’re the type of people who get to know you.”
Advertisement for the business relies almost solely on word-of-mouth to constantly bring in new customers in, while their great customer service keeps them coming back. Many regular customers have been coming since the store first opened its doors.
Devon and Jason Neal don’t frequently make the drive out to Troyer’s Country Store from their home in Liverpool with their baby Oliver, but, when they do, they stock up on favorite bulk items.
“They have a lot of healthy alternatives,” said Devon.
Troyer’s Country Store prides itself on 100 percent satisfaction, quality focus, friendly staff and prompt service. There are only three things they never do: never argue with a customer, never ignore a customer and never sacrifice quality for price. In one instance, a customer brought back a jar of peanut butter that they had already tried and requested a different kind.
“Happy customers are more important than a $2 jar of peanut butter,” said John.
In addition to their own farm products, the store sells eggs from the farmer across the road, locally crafted goods such as candles, soaps and wicker baskets, and bulk items they purchase from Dutch Valley Food Distributors based in Pennsylvania.
“Some people think we are some kind of wizards that make everything happen in the back, but you know there’s a limit to what you can do,” said John.
Dottie Migonis, who lives in Hamilton, visits the store once every two weeks. She loves the pastries.
“They have a lot of products that are not found in regular stores,” said Dottie. “The meats are excellent, baked goods are amazing and I even use their soap.”
The store is fully equipped with a peanut grinder to make peanut butter. The family grinds only one ingredient — peanuts — into a unique and smooth butter that is popular among customers. Seven-Year Aged Cheddar cheese is offered to sample on the counter by the register. The taste is so sharp, even Mervin eats it with a cracker to balance it out.
“One of the most fun parts of having the store are the customers,” said John. ““They don’t want a Walmart here, they want a small country store.”
One thing that bothers him, however, is the negative perceptions people often have about farming.
“There’s still a lot of people out there that think farming is just a bad thing, where you lose a lot of money, and it’s too much work,” said John. “But a lot of it has to do with the fact that whenever people have a profit they give it to the equipment dealer. If they let the animals do more of the work they’d make more profit.”
The niche market of the small Town of Fenner in Upstate New York that the Troyers settled into contributes to their success. They said they feel that attempting to sell goods into a large commodity market would have been disadvantageous to the farm and business.
On Saturdays, their busiest day of the week, the store often has over 200 transactions at the register, roughly 300 to 400 people. On warmer days, customers are greeted by the family dog, Cindy, and open the door to enter a bustling market that seems to transcend time in both products and décor.
At the end of the day, Mervin removes a big black book from their office’s desk and carefully places it on the table, flipping to the most current date and checking records of sales. The Troyers have hand-written records for every year, dating back to the very first day they opened. The system hasn’t let them down yet.
His father expects the youngest son to continue to grow in his position in the store, one day becoming a partner.
Mervin enjoys running the family business and has ruled out farming— he doesn’t like working with animals as much as in the store. However, he is unsure where time will take him.
“I haven’t really charted out my future yet. Possibly I’ll [run the family store], or I might start up another business, too. I don’t know,” said Mervin. “I definitely want to do something where I can continue dealing with people. It’s kind of what I like to do.”
