Crabapple General Store

This weekend I dug an old idea from the back corners of my mind. Originally I daydreamed about opening a store in Seaside Florida selling T-shirts and other sundries. Once successful other stores could be opened in other trendy spots and North Atlanta. My new idea is to open a similar store in the north Fulton County village of Crabapple, to be called the Crabapple General Store.

Like old time general stores, the Crabapple General Store would have hardwood floors, ceiling fans, high ceilings, a front porch, and plenty of old stuff on the walls – black & white photos, etc. We’d sell apples and Cokes iced down in galvanized washtubs. An extensive assortment of coffee and cappuchinos. Also water, gum, and candy bars. Ice cream. Also other vintage items I stumble across at thrift stores: college and pro T-shirts, toys, games, old records, wooden baseball bats, old golf clubs, and bobble head dolls. There could be a checkers table and TV area. I’d have to be careful to make the store as female friendly as possible. We could sell Ceil’s homemade apple pie or her handmade purses.

The store would mainly sell various trendy T-shirts – particularly Crabapple General Store T-shirts in both adult and child sizes. Other tees could support local events and schools, or be Crabapple takeoffs on popular movies, TV shows, and other events (like the local equestrian community). Along with white and grey, the main color would be dark crabapple red. Each tee, regardless of style, would feature a small Crabapple General Store logo on the left sleeve. During winter we’d add long sleeve tees. Perhaps some good old boy Crabapple General Store ball caps. In addition to crabapple red caps and white caps, others could be modeled after various Braves caps: navy with a red bill, royal with a white front, or all navy.

Another T-shirt would look like an old time baseball jersey. The team: the Crabapple Pickers. Each new order of limited-edition Pickers shirts would feature a different player’s name and number – usually a popular / quirky current Braves player like Evan Gattis or Kris Medlen, as well as old-timers like Hank Aaron, Rabbit Maranville, and Bob Uecker mixed in (note complete player list below).

The downtown Crabapple area, just north of the silos near the Birmingham Road intersection, combines shops bordering the street with houses behind them. It would be great to have a building with the store on the first level and living area above. We’d like to move up in that area anyway, though we don’t have a specific subdivision in mind.

Player list: Rabbit Maranville (1), Dale Murphy (3), Jeff Blauser (4), Freddie Freeman (5), Bobby Cox (6), Bob Uecker (8), Andrelton Simmons (19), Warren Spahn (21), Chris Johnson (23), Evan Gattis (24), Greg Maddux (31), Phil Niekro (35), Eddie Mathews (41), Hank Aaron (44), Kris Medlen (54), Peter Moylan (58).