[wind chimes chiming] [truck whooshing] - Buchanan's Store is an icon from the past.

It still remains that home warmth comfort of an old school country store.

People go, "Well, I came there as a child, and I'm bringing my grandchild, and I recognize it."

[chuckling] It looks just like it did then.

- [James] The ones that's been coming here 40 and 50 years, that's what they wanna see.

They don't wanna see fresh-painted brick and mortars, they wanna see the old Buchanan's Store that the floors still shake when you walk in.

- It's like stepping into history.

I don't know of any other store where you can go to and it still has the original items.

You can get the hoop cheese, and you can get the little short sodas, and you can sit on the porch and visit.

- The old country stores like these are a dying breed, and I'm so glad to still see this place prospering, 'cause it really is a great place.

Great people, they're always friendly when you come in.

- [Lucy] It's just so special to all of us.

It's historical, and I feel like it's a throwback to another time and place that a lot of people don't get to experience.

- [Lucy] Something warm and comforting of being able to just sit down and relax, and not worry about what's going on in the rest of the world, but just enjoy being at Buchanan's Store.

[gentle music continues] [birds cawing] [light music] - When I was younger, folks walked up here every day.

It was a farm store.

You met here to go to the fields and work.

[footsteps thudding] I'm James Reese.

I bought the store about 11 years ago.

I grew up here, locally.

I worked in here as a kid when I was eight, nine years old with my grandmother.

I was over here helping her during the summer when I was outta school, pumping gas and towing ice.

That's probably my fondest memory.

I learned a lot at a young age, you know, stocking shelves and filling drink boxes.

It used to be a bunch of drink boxes in here.

It's a whole lot more work than I saw as a kid, you know?

Alls I saw was how them doors never stopped moving, but now it's more behind the scenes that you realize, you know, getting the stuff in here.

[traffic whooshing] Keeping the tax man paid, you know.

[chuckling] - Have everything on it.

- I think it's a gathering place for the lake people to come together and for the community.

My given name is Lucy Brown Buchanan Hawthorne Currin.

but most of my buddies and friends and everybody around here will just refer to me as Cookie.

I have been going in the store since I could walk, or my parents would carry me in the store.

So, you know, it's just like a home away from home.

Buchanan's Store opened April the 13th, 1878, and we believe it is the oldest continuous running family-owned general store in the southeast United States.

[traffic whooshing] The Buchanans first came here about 1847.

It first started with my granddaddy's, Robert Lee Buchanan's two brothers, his two older brothers.

And I think they saw a need and an opportunity that it would be beneficial to the family, and also beneficial to the community.

There were no big grocery stores to go to, and a lot of people didn't have transportation to get to the grocery store.

So that's where you got your sugar, and your flour, and all those kinds of things.

And it was a gathering place.

It was a community, a friendly place where you'd always feel welcome and be able to sit down with your friends and discuss tobacco prices, and discuss the weather, and pitch pennies.

This is actually the ledger from the original first day that it opened in April of 1878.

So you can get a half a pound of coffee for six cents.

Compare that to, [chuckling] to today's prices.

And a half gallon of molasses for 20 cents.

A pair of shoes would be for a dollar, and a pair of pants, a dollar and a half.

Everything that anybody needed in the neighborhood, they could find at the store.

[light music continues] It's kinda the center of the family, like, kinda like a church would be.

The church and the old-fashioned general store would certain to be places that the family would feel safe and enjoy being.

Wilson Fleming is an icon of this world, [chuckling] this community, this store.

He ran the store for about 44 years.

He and his family have also been working the land on this farm for years.

- He was like a second granddad to me.

He was awesome.

He was a community man.

You know, he worked half the community on his farm.

Folks still come in here and say, "This is Will Fleming's store.

Mr.

Fleming," and that's fine with me.

You know, it'd always be his store in a lot of people's eyes.

- My dad tried to stock everything that anyone asked for, and if he didn't have it, he'd make sure that he got it for you.

Came up with that slogan, "If we ain't got it, you don't need it."

[birds chirping] - After Wilson had to give it up, there was a period there that we were on the lookout, we were kinda struggling to kinda figure out how it's going to continue, and I think Jamie, thank goodness, said, "Yeah."

This would, like, be a dream of his too, that he wanted to come back into the store.

[gentle music] - Yeah.

That it for you today?

And I went over there, and we made an agreement, one Sunday evening, and I went home and told my wife that I just bought, I bought you a walk-in pantry.

[laughing] When I first started during the winter months, I was lucky to see three people, and two of 'em were the same.

Once they found out I got it though, and I was being local and I knew most of them, I started finally getting 'em back in here and getting it back up in shape.

My wife helped out a lot with that.

She saw a bigger vision of how to make it profitable, better than I did.

And then once we got a little flat top back here, a little four eye stove and started frying the bologna, and then it just blew up from there.

[light music] [cheese sizzling] The locals, I think, quit eating at home when I put a grill in, which, that's helped.

That's kept us alive, really.

- Sam?

- Sam.

- Sam.

[food sizzling] - Jamie and Jenny are doing an outstanding job, and I'm thankful, and that I am glad that the word is spreading even more of out of Warren County.

And people that come to the lake that are new to the lake, once they come, they'll be coming back and they'll tell their friends.

- It's to the point of my kids, when they bring their friends here, and when we have friends that are heading down 85, they'll stop, like, that have no connection to the store whatsoever, just 'cause we've talked about it so much and they wanna see what Buchanan's Store is.

And it's odd.

I mean it's a store, you know, it's an old country store, but it's just so special to all of us.

- I've been literally coming to this store all my life.

[package crinkling] Perfect.

[scanner beeping] You know, you always have things in your childhood you never forget, and being 66, I still can enjoy coming to Buchanan's, so that hasn't changed.

So we come up here several times a year.

Always come to Buchanan's, either coming or going, or why we're here if we need something.

[chuckling] - [Producer] Who else have you always brought up here?

- My son.

- [Producer] Who's that?

- You.

[Wayne laughing] You grew up here, too.

Now, I hope it never changes.

I hope it's here until I'm gone.

You know, [chuckling] I hope they don't ever get rid of this place, you know, 'cause it's very special.

There's not many like this left anywhere.

- I can't imagine not having Buchanan's Store.

It's been a part of my life since I was just a child, and I'm so glad that Jamie is running it now and doing a good job.

And my children love it and beg to come here.

We spend our summers, practically most of our summers around here, so that's gonna be really important for our family and for the community.

- Yes, it's emotional.

It's emotional.

It's just such a happy, satisfied feeling that it is remaining.

It's worked for almost 150 years, so let's let it work some more.

[light music continues] [birds chirping]