Walterboro has a number of businesses that have been in the area for generations today we will Spotlight two of them, H&D Supermarket and Walterboro Foodland.
We spoke to Laura Drawdy, along with her husband Gene Drawdy. They are the owners of both stores after purchasing them last year. Although new owners, they are still part of the family history. Laura explains, “My husband’s grandfather, Gene Drawdy and Lucas Hiott, opened H&D in the 50s. My husband tells a story that he used to run around the store when he was little, and everyone would tell him to slow down and stop running. One day he rounded the corner and ran smack dab into a pole in the middle of the store. He also remembers when there was saw dust on the floors in the market.
Pam Smith and Della Robertson owned H&D and ran it for 30 years. When Ms. Della was ready to retire, Ms. Pam reached out to us. Gene previously worked for Ms. Pam at Foodland, and she knew he was interested in getting back his grandfather’s store.
After being a paralegal for 15 years, I never expected to leave that field to own a business with my husband. He’s the grocery man. Gene started out at BiLo as a stocker when he was 18 years old and has primarily worked in the grocery business since.”
The store has changed very little over the years, “We are going to make some changes, but people love how it is now, so the changes are more of an update to a couple of things to make the store a little more efficient.
The meat departments at both stores cut meat fresh daily. They get in slabs of meat that are then cut to standard size, but they also take special orders as well. For Example, “I had lady call in asking for 14 Ribeyes one inch thick for Christmas, and we took care of that for her.”
H&D also has a hot deli. They cook from 8am until 1pm every day and the deli counter is open until all food is sold, or until 4 pm, per DHEC guidelines. People will come in at 8 am wanting fried pork chops or fried fish to pack their lunch. Road workers will come in and pick up lunch before they start their day. We have some customers that come from surrounding counties for our food.
The deli will also take special orders if people call ahead. “Every day we have fried fish, pork chops, fried chicken, including wings and potato wedges. We’re looking to expand that a little bit in the future but we’re not exactly sure what direction we will take. People ask for breakfast foods. Some people were asking for dinner foods.”
The Drawdys also own Foodland. They bought Foodland in January of last year as well. “We weren’t planning on buying Foodland. It just happened. Foodland located near Ireland Creek was originally Red and White Food Store and opened in the 60’s. David Breland is our market manager. He has been with Foodland at for many years, but his father, Michael Breland, was the market man there before him. David learned everything from his father, and I will tell you, I don’t think we can find a better butcher in the state. He just knows his stuff.”
The previous owner of Foodland did cosmetic updates to the store but ran into a lot of equipment issues. When the Drawdy’s took over they updated and repaired the equipment and got the store back into shape that customers are used to.
Drawdy says, “Our staff are wonderful at both stores. My husband Gene runs Foodland and Philip McNair runs H&D, but Gene runs between the stores and can be found at H&D as well. We have shift managers at Foodland that keep the store running smoothly when Gene isn’t there. I go into the stores but mostly work from home taking care of the administrative stuff.
We have Ms. Nancy Bailey and Gene’s younger brother, Rooke Drawdy, in the meat department at Foodland. Miss Nancy has been with H&D around 30 years now and Rooke worked in the meat department at Reid’s in Ravenel for a time. Some of our cashiers and shift managers at both stores stayed with us after the transition and have been wonderful help to us. Jamey Copeland, Ms. Della’s nephew, is still with us at H&D, and he’s such a joy to be around. He and our manager, Phillip McNair, along with the rest of our staff, go above and beyond for our customers when they come in. Jamey knows everybody by name, and they love him. If you don’t feel like you’ve been treated well when you leave either store, then there’s a problem and we want to know about it.
H&D js open from 7 am to 9 pm Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 8pm.
FoodLand is open From 7 am to 8 pm. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 8 pm.
For more information visit them on Facebook
