HOPE – If there was one business that locals would tell you to stop by, it would be the jewel of Hope, Terry Powell’s Grocery Store located at North Hazel and Greenwood streets. Known for his caring nature and his world-famous cracklins, Terry is a home-grown hero that the whole town looks up to. We decided to learn more about his illustrious career and the story of his business.
Mr. Terry Powell, a Hope native, graduated from Spring Hill High School in 1968. When he was six years old, his family rented a grocery store named Townsend Groceries. After a while, the owners wanted the store back, so Terry’s family decided to build their own store, beginning the lifelong store owning business spirit that he has harnessed. His famous grocery store’s story started when his uncle, Gene Powell, bought a store that was on the same property. Terry, who worked for the Highway Department at the time, would help his uncle at the store in his off-time. Eventually, Terry would buy this store and make it his own in 1979, building the current store in 1990.
The story of his cracklins started in the early years of his grocery store. He had heard of a man in Texarkana that made cracklins, so he asked if this man could show him how they were made. With this new-found knowledge, Terry took the idea and ran with it, creating a Hope favorite. To this day, his cracklins are his hottest seller, and, while other businesses have tried to recreate this delicacy, none have quite touched his own. To Terry, the special ingredients for his cracklins are the breading and the seasoning, which is carefully thought out by him, and shipped in by Sysco.
But what exactly is a cracklin? Before Mr. Powell’s version, cracklins were originally just fat from a hog, cooked and eaten. However, Terry made them his own. He instead cooked the pork belly lean, leading to cracklins just simply being pieces of bacon, cured and smoked.
After learning about the history of his food and his franchise, we also asked him a few other questions. When asked about what purpose small stores such as his serve in towns, he answered with, “It’s a community store. I make sure to care for my customers, and they have stayed with me and cared for me as well. I like to say I’ve raised them. We’ve just managed to keep growing and to keep going on and the community has supported us the whole way through”. We then asked him how long some of his workers, including his son and current Terry Powell’s owner Colby, and long-time worker La’Tonya Smith have worked for him. He replied, “Colby has worked here since he graduated from UCA, while La’Tonya has worked here for ten years”. Moving on, we asked him about what he does for fun in his freetime. “Oh, I love to go fishing. I have a lot of fish in my pond out there, and I just recently went fishing with my grandsons from Conway there, and we caught quite a few fish”. Coming to a close, we asked him about what he sees in the future for his store. “Well, I believe we are going to grow more and more. When you come by once, you will come back again. I believe this place still has a role in town, and me and Colby have worked hard to improve it”.
At the end, Terry stated that, “I love my customers. I’ve had many customers that have been coming in since they were young, it’s like I’ve raised them”.
Mr. Terry Powell’s grocery store has been a Hope staple for 45 plus years, and, although he is now 76 years old, he will surely be around to raise the next generation.
Pictures from Powell’s:
Pictured: Employee La’Tonya Smith
Pictured: Employee Maria Marufo
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