By Amanda Raymond
amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

MOORESVILLE — True South Shop is giving the community a place to pick up household products and sell their own items.

True South Shop, at 5945 Hwy. 152 W., is both a convenience and craft store.

Owner Andrea Hafner opened the store after deciding she wanted to spend more time with her 2-year-old son Maximus. She was a teacher for eight years, but started working part time at a local convenience store to cut down on her hours. While working there, she realized she liked the business side of things.

“I just fell in love with the business,” she said.

Hafner comes from a family that loves their crafts. She said she, her mother and her sister had always talked about opening a craft store, but they all had other jobs and did not take the idea seriously.

After learning about what it takes to operate a business while she worked for the convenience store, Hafner decided to take the idea of a craft store seriously.

Hafner found a building close by to where she lives and signed a lease three months later.

Hafner was cautious at first. The windows of the building were boarded up and there was a wall separating the building into two spaces. Hafner thought she would keep the wall up to start out so that the store would look more full to customers.

As Hafner and her husband Zac started cleaning the store up and getting it ready to open, Hafner said people stopped by and started offering products that she could sell.

That’s when Hafner decided to take the leap and tear down the divider wall.

“It literally tore down the wall in me,” she said.

The store is the only convenience store between Mooresville and China Grove, Hafner said. She said she wanted to provide a place where the community could stop by and get things that they needed. The convenience side of the store has things like toilet paper, dish soap, pet food, water and other drinks, snacks and candy. There is also locally made jams, peanut butter and soap.

The craft side of the store features locally-made items such as jewelry, handmade Barbie doll clothes, oils, bath salts and lotions. There are also antiques, dolls and other items that local people have kept over the years and are now ready to part with.

“We’re selling things that you can’t find anywhere else,” Hafner said.

Hafner said more and more consignors are coming in every day and she is glad to provide a place for local people to sell their items.

“I think people are just excited to have a place for their stuff,” she said.

Hafner is also selling and using some of the antiques from her family. Her grandfather was a woodworker and has a lot of items that he has created or refurnished in a shed. Hafner has refinished some of the items for her shop.

She said it meant a lot to use what her grandfather had made in a store that was her own creation.

“It was something so dear to my heart,” she said.

Hafner said she wants the store to be a wholesome environment for the community. She does not sell alcohol or lottery tickets because she wants her son to grow up in the store and eat or drink anything there. There is a room in the back of the store for her son with toys, books and a drawing table.

There is a table across from the cash register where Hafner said she has spent time with customers drinking coffee, playing spades, reading the newspaper or just talking. There are also rocking chairs out front. She said she wants to bring personal communication back.

“People have really respected that,” she said.

She also hopes to provide a place for South Rowan High School students to visit.

Hafner said people have enjoyed having a store close by where they can pick up a few things quickly when they run out. She tries to carry a little bit of everything so that there is something for everyone.

Though Hafner was afraid that she would not be able to fill the full space, she said she now has products in the back waiting to be priced because the store is filling up.

And she said she won’t refuse the products to come.

True South Shop is open Monday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Visit True South Shop’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TrueSouthShop.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.