After four years of planning and renovations, the Surry Marketplace at the corner of Routes 10 and 31 will open its doors to the public for the first time on Sept. 14.

Co-owner Sheryl White announced what she termed a “soft opening” of the long-awaited grocery store at the Sept. 12 meeting of the county’s Board of Supervisors.

The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 14 and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 15.

The store will reopen on Monday and remain open every day after, but will wait until after the weekend opening to set weekday hours, White said.

“We are so grateful that we are at this point,” said board Chairman Robert Elliott. “There was a whole lot of doubt whether we were ever going to get here, but we are here. We do have a grocery store in Surry County.”

Surry’s only major grocery store shuttered in 1999. For more than 20 years, the county has been designated a “food desert,” which the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as low-income or rural communities where at least 33% of the population lives 10 miles or more from  a supermarket. 

The county is “no longer a food desert,” Elliott said, adding, “This has been a labor of love for all that have been involved.”

White and her husband, Andrew, purchased the former Surry Furniture & Hardware Co. building in 2019. In 2020, their proposal to convert the space into a grocery store received a $300,000 grant from the Obici Healthcare Foundation, which Surry County’s Economic Development Authority matched with its own funds. The couple also received a $50,000 state grant in 2021 aimed at combating food deserts.

According to Renee Chapline of Surry’s Economic Development Department, the market received its certificate of occupancy in late April and its Virginia Department of Agriculture certificate in May. Andrew White, who gave The Smithfield Times a tour of the store’s interior in June, at that time blamed lingering supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic for the delays that have plagued the renovations for years. The county funding purchased refrigeration equipment that, according to Assistant County Administrator David Harrison, didn’t arrive until late 2022.

“We thank you, each and every one of you, we thank you,” Sheryl White told the supervisors. “We’re mindful of the countless gifts from the county government, the donations, the grants and the support. So we are grateful for the gifts. We do not take for granted the blessings that have made this possible because it is a blessing; it’s a blessing for us as members of Surry County. We live in Surry County, we’re raising our families in Surry County. My grandchildren love to come to Surry County, so we have an investment here.”

Sheryl gave credit to store Manager Michelle Brown for bringing the store across the finish line. Brown said she’s hired four to five employees so far.

“I’m glad for the opportunity to be able to get this store open,” Brown said. “I’ve never been in a situation where I wasn’t near a grocery store, so when I heard about the situation the county was in, it was very important for me to give that opportunity to others to be able to go locally to buy groceries.”

Andrew White told the Times in June that he expects to eventually have roughly 20 full- and part-time positions.

Sheryl White said that the store is 75% stocked.

“We’re waiting for some of the other vendors to come in,” she said.

But meats and produce, “that we have,” Brown said.

Andrew, in July, said that in addition to groceries the store would have a brisket smoker outside to prepare ready-made meat for sale. Through a swinging door marked “employees onl” are separate climate-controlled refrigeration rooms for meats and vegetables, a walk-in freezer, and a kitchen where rotisserie chickens will be cooked for sale. Andrew said there’s also a room he envisions as a future pharmacy.

Now, Elliott said, it’s up to county residents to patronize the store.

“We need Surry County to support it so we can keep a grocery store in Surry County,” he said.