Prior to 1960 when the first true supermarket came to Montevallo, there were five small grocery or mercantile stores on Main Street offering a varying selection of food products to local families. Several of these stores had butcher shops and offered fresh vegetables when in season. In those days, a grocery would not survive if they didn’t deliver phoned-in grocery orders to the doorsteps of their customers. The deliveries were usually made by a teenage boy on a heavy-duty bicycle with an oversized basket to hold the grocery bags.
McCulley’s Food Store moved into the space next door to Alabama Power Co. on Main Street in 1938. The newspaper announcement you see in the photograph ran in the Montevallo Times on March 24 of that year. The previous occupant had been a business called the “Dollar Store.” Teamon McCulley, the proprietor, moved his existing business from Shelby Street, near the railroad depot, and remained in this location until the store closed approximately 40 years later. McCulley’s offered personalized service and the largest selection in town. And you could count on Mr. Tommy Latham, in his white apron over a dress shirt and tie, to be at the cash register taking care of every customer and making them feel right at home.
The Alabama Power Co. moved out of their corner location around 1960 into offices in the new Whaley Shopping Center next door to the recently completed Food Center supermarket. Soon after, Mr. McCulley expanded his store into the Alabama Power Co. space with the intention of meeting the competition presented by the arrival of the Food Center. Almost overnight, the sleepy grocery scene in Montevallo bloomed into a food shopping paradise. Needless to say, the smaller, old-line businesses on Main Street were not long for this world.
Thanks to Clayton Nordan, Vice-President of the Montevallo Historical Society, for contributing these images and information!
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