Shelby Forest General Store is featured on national TV
A nationally televised show this month showered three minutes of love on the venerable Shelby Forest General Store just north of Memphis.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s TBN show called “Huckabee” began a new travelogue feature hosted by country comedian Chonda Pierce. She inaugurated her series May 12 with a video feature on the 84-yearold country store at the edge of Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park in northwest Shelby County.
Even though the show has aired, it can be viewed at www.tbn.org/programs/huckabee/watch/huckabee-13.
Pierce’s feature, titled ‘Chonda’s America’, starts just after the 20minute mark.
“They stayed here all day, filmed and filmed,” said Doug Ammons, who with his wife, Kristin, has owned and operated the store since 2003.
The film crew intended to spend just half a day before going to Graceland, but the community spot at 7729 Benjestown Road resonated so strongly with Pierce and company that they made a day of it, Ammons said.
The former financial adviser could almost qualify as a comedian himself. He’s known for wearing shorts no matter the weather and for busting out silly rhymes while counting out change from behind the cash register.
Among them: “It’s all good in the wooded hood” or “Three is 10, take this change and come again” or “Four is seven, this ain’t no Walmart or 7Eleven.”
Little wonder that he and Pierce — an entertainer dubbed the “Queen of Clean” — seemed to hit it off in the video feature.
Pierce is shown looking at one of the many stuffed animals and deer antlers in the store while asking Ammons, “You shoot this yourself?”
“No, ma’am,” he replies. “I shoot the bull.”
After Ammons serves Pierce a fried bologna sandwich outside on the deck, she essentially asks him why he continues to run the store.
Ammons, a storekeeper who keeps flip-flops on his feet and his heart on his sleeve, responds:
“When people come in, they just want to bask in the salve of this old store, this old beacon of yesteryear, this reminder of innocence of their childhood when life was easier and softer and you didn’t have to feel like you were looking over your back all the time, you know?”
Pierce says, “And I love that every time somebody comes in the door you say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”
“Well, this is home,” Ammons says.
Still, the Ammonses have been trying since 2009 to sell the property, which includes the 3.1 acres zoned commercial, a 2,600-square-foot custom log house and the store.
They even offered a $10,000 reward in 2011 to anyone providing a lead resulting in the sale.
The list price was $1.8 million seven years ago and is $2 million today. “But I’m here with an open mind to either bring in our successor or an investor and launch this thing,” Ammons said this month.
The listing agent is Mark Young, senior vice president of TMI Trust Co. in Atlanta.
The Ammonses say they love the lifestyle and the people, but the daily responsibilities of operating a store leave little time for other activities.