Piggly Wiggly rescued by Dillard Couple

A Dillard couple has rescued the Piggly Wiggly.  On Dec. 31, 2019, the regional owners of the grocery store on Highway 441 North in Dillard planned to close the doors for the final time, but Jeff and Lisa Harris of Dillard have purchased the store with plans to make it more local.  “About three weeks ago I walked into the store and found out it was getting ready to close. We had no idea that the future of the store was that imminent to close and going home and talking with a lot of soul-searching and praying we decided that we would take the hurdle and buy the store and keep it open.  So, this is the first part of the year so we are going to close the store briefly on Jan. 4-5, and reopen it on Jan. 6, and start putting new stock in and getting it back to where it is supposed to be.”  Residents in the northern end of the county depend on this store, continues Jeff Harris.  “The north end of the county; Dillard, Mountain City, and Sky Valley, even Otto, North Carolina, and areas to the north this is just something that needs to be in Rabun County.  This community has used this store for years and years and depends on this store because a lot of people can’t drive all the way to Clayton or Franklin so we want to be there for that end of the county.”  Harris wants to make the Piggly Wiggly more local with a family atmosphere.  “It will stay the Piggly Wiggly name but we want to get it back to a local store.  I want local produce, I want as many local items in the store as I can get. We are going to make sure that the meat is some of the best meat around.  We want it to be a family-type store and that is what we are striving to be.”  The store re-opens on Monday, Jan. 6, 2020, ahead of its first shipment of goods on Tuesday, Jan. 7.  An official grand re-opening of the new and improved and locally owned Piggly Wiggly is set for this spring.