By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer

Finger Lakes-based farm supply retailer CountryMax is building its 16th store on Route 31 in Baldwinsville.

Mandi Lenhard, marketing director for CountryMax, said the company is looking at a fall opening for the Baldwinsville store, which will be about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet. Lenhard said this store will be similar to the CountryMax superstore that opened in Henrietta in late March.
“We’re very excited about this one,” Lenhard said of the Baldwinsville store.
Like the newly opened Henrietta store, the Baldwinsville CountryMax will feature an events room, a pet boutique with specialty dog products and supplies, beer and cheese making kits, novelty items and housewares in addition to the retail chain’s traditional farm and garden offerings.
“Several of our locations will have a dog wash, which has become very popular,” Lenhard said.
Lenhard could not say how many jobs the new store would bring to Baldwinsville.
“Because it will be a brand new store for us — we won’t be closing or moving from another location — we will be hiring a brand-new staff,” she said.
Lenhard said CountryMax builds its own stores and the company’s 300-plus employees “wear many hats” in the construction and operation of CountryMax locations. She said the company is a third-generation family business.
“We’re big in the fact that we have 15 stores, but we’re still small in the fact that we’re family-owned and -operated and private,” Lenhard said. “Everyone pitches in to get the work done. A lot of pride comes with that.”
Founded by the Payne family in 1984, CountryMax first opened as Farmington Agway in Farmington, southeast of Rochester. The chain became known as CountryMax in 1999 with the opening of its fifth store. To take a virtual tour of a CountryMax store, visit countrymax.com/Virtual-Tour-of-CountryMax.