(relaxing music) - [Dara] It's pretty hard to miss traveling down East White Street in Rock Hill.

The mural just catches your eye.

The woman looking off in the distance, the dove flying freely, and the reminders of the city's past.

- With the cotton warehouses and then the railroads, and then the freedom rides that came through here with John Lewis.

- [Dara] Once the abstract patterns and pops of color on the side of the building have lured people in, they typically wanna find out what's on the inside.

- [Marie] It feels just very genuine and organic, and that's the energy that they create in here.

(relaxing music) - [Dara] Once you step inside the mercantile, the whimsical feel of the general store takes you away, from its bohemian home decor, smell of fresh flowers, to handcrafted soaps.

- I love how laid back it is in the sense like, I can just come in here, decompress, kind of step away from the world and just focus on me.

- [Dara] As you walk around, you'll also find several DIY stations where you can let your creativity flow by making jewelry, candles, putting cool logos on hats, or spice it up a bit and create your own seasoning blend, from the dozens of options.

- [Gracee] I love how new it feels, every time I come in here.

There's always something to try.

- You ready to check out?

- I am, I am!

- Oh good.

How are you today?

- I'm good, how are you?

- Good!

- [Dara] But what they can't put on the shelves and sell is the way employees make their customers feel.

- [Marie] Take it easy.

It's been a long work week.

What keeps me coming back in here is their authenticity, their inclusiveness for any and everyone.

- [Dara] And that isn't by accident.

- We wanted it to be a safe space.

We wanted to cater to everyone.

I'm a big activist, so it was important to me that the makeup of our store and the customer base was exactly what this town is.

- [Dara] Co-owner Brittany Kelly is a Rock Hill girl through and through.

She grew up watching people in her family own businesses here.

In 2018 when she and her husband Michael opened the mercantile, they wanted to shake things up.

- I was raised here in the south, so you know, you don't talk politics, you don't talk religion, you don't talk finances, all the things that you're not supposed to talk about, I was like, I'm gonna try a different business model.

- [Dara] And what that looks like is, starting an anti-bullying campaign, Rock Hill Pride and their Merck and Power program that allows black women to sell their products at the store.

- There was a big divide in the community with everybody.

So we're trying to be that bridge, that like, hey, it doesn't matter what side, no matter what, everybody's the same in here regardless.

So like come in.

This is the one place where everything's good.

- [Gracee] There's just so many people that come in, so many different types of people, and just hearing the perspectives of people in the community is really important too.

It's fun.

- Michael and Brittany don't just want their customers inside to feel a part of the community, but also those who don't have enough to eat, this fridge here is changing lives.

- [Brittany] It's open 24/7, no questions asked.

You know, if you go to other food banks, they might ask your income.

They might want you to sign up to join the church or show up to a few classes in lieu of getting some services and help, and we just didn't want any of those strings attached to it.

We wanted people who needed it to come because sometimes it's an embarrassing thing.

- [Dara] The idea to set up the community fridge that feeds over 250 people a day came to them while volunteering in local schools.

- They were telling us how hungry they were.

You know, mom and dad were working two, three jobs, maybe grandma was helping them study.

And so from there, we got together with some kids.

We started the community fridge and to just get food in these mouths of the kids.

- [Dara] The couple quickly learned, it wasn't just the youth who needed help.

- [Brittany] You know, the elderly community, the veterans were a lot of the people we were seeing come.

It was completely opposite of what I thought that it would be.

It's amazing to see how many hungry people there were.

- People need it.

It's a really tough time right now.

And one thing I can do is help out locally.

- [Dara] As Michael and Brittany used the Merck to create a better future for Rock Hill, they also haven't forgotten about its rich history.

That includes the building they're in.

- [Brittany] Hundred years old this year, and it was the old Coca-Cola factory and it has its own quirks.

There's lots of little things here and there that spout out to its history of the building with the red floors popping through at the bottom and just the old beams and the lift and things like that.

- [Dara] Locals say over the years, it was also a bike store and more recently, a pawn shop.

- We've heard from one of the guys that used to work in the pawn shop, he's the one, he actually came up and showed me all the bullet holes in the structural beams where they used to test the guns, which is an odd thing to test them on, but there's still bullets.

- [Dara] The building itself has a story to tell, but it's the people inside the keep the story going.

- Anytime someone comes in, we want them to feel at home.

We want them to feel like family.

- They bring me happiness.

I mean, because I know they're accepted here, - [Dara] Accepted and loved, exactly how they are.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Dara Khaalid.