“Out There…Somewhere”: Taking a Stand For Peaches

Trenton, SC—Sara Powell was enjoying her retirement, by trimming bushes in 100 degree weather, in Trenton, South Carolina. “Its fun,“ she said, with a laugh.

But, for 17 years, she owned Sara’s Peach Stand, on Highway 121, outside of Trenton. She’s got a PhD in peach stand.

“Be good to the customers, and sell good stuff, that’s the main thing. Naturally, if you love your customers, you’re going to be good to them,” she said.

Sara’s old stand is still selling good stuff, and loving customers, but under new owners. It’s the Ridge Peach Festival time, here, and that means the fruit is flying off the shelves.

“The Peach Festival is the busiest day of the year for us. They come from Georgia, from Aiken, everywhere…you can’t stir them with a stick in here,” said Callie Carroll, the manager of Sara’s Peach Stand.

Here come the customers, I wonder if they could use some help…“Absolutely, come on,” she said.

The first customer asking for help didn’t want mine, “Come on,” I said, “I want to help.” But, she turned to another employee when she asked about her purchase.

“I’m more the management type,” I told her, hurt by her lack of confidence in my stand abilities. Dave was filling up one of the quarter peck bags of peaches.

“Get the peck out of the way,” I said, as I showed him how it was done, “We’ve got customers…how did you get along without me?” I asked, basking in the glow of a peach stand rush.

“Go ahead, look around, kick a few tires,” I told another customer, who didn’t seem the least bit interested in my strong take on the Harvester brand of peach.

Customer friendly, and a peach of a stand staffer, I bet Sara would love to come out of retirement to work with a peach stand pro like me.

“No, you know better, you know better than that,” she said, with a laugh.

Peddling peaches at festival time, its sweet work, but I better not quit the day job.