#2,571 Rob.

Rob was one of our youth kids back in 2008-2010 whom we never lost touch with. He was one of those exceptional kids whom you could always count on to make sure the younger ones weren’t getting into too much trouble on a trip, who had an older brother which gave him the air of maturity, even as a 10th grader. He and Ben have been close ever since, and after Rob graduated from Mississippi State and then spent some time working at Orvis headquarters in Wyoming, we were lucky enough to bring him into the fold at the Mercantile. He has a lot of retail experience and marketing interest and is smart as a whip and it shows. Every day, he impresses us by caring. About every task he does. Tonight he stayed until 9:00 with Ben and I to make sure we got everything done with the new displays and the warehousing upstairs. He’s an outdoorsy man’s man, but he took some art courses in college and definitely has an eye for composition that I appreciated tonight.

Afterward we bought him a fancy steak dinner at the Waffle House.

I know his ambitions may lead him someplace else one day, but any business would be lucky to have him. I would love for that to be us.