New Places and Faces For 7-11 in Marshall

New Places and Faces For 7-11 in Marshall

By Leonard Shapiro

Some mornings, Kim Doffermire leaves home in Front Royal a couple of hours early just so “I can go see all those smiling faces” she knows so well at the original downtown Marshall 7-11. She’ll hang out there with some of her old pals and regulars at the Main Street location before she heads over to the new 7-11 a few hundred yards from I-66.

Kim managed the original store for a number of years and now is doing the same at the new one. Her daughter Brooke, who lives in Marshall, is now the manager at the original store, and both are owned by long-time Marshall natives Clyde and Bernice Simpson.

It’s less than a half-mile between the two locations, but something of a world apart when it comes right down to it, according to Bernice.

“The old-timers are still going to the old store,” she said. “And we’re getting a lot of new people at the other one. It’s been fantastic at the new store. We’re selling food, gas, beer. Everything is going out of there. And the older store is doing great, too.”

The new store, with 16 gas pumps, “is more of an afternoon store,” Bernice said. “People are coming in after school, after work, and from every direction. The other one (with four gas pumps) is more of a morning store. A lot of people hit the other one pretty early. And we have basically the same stuff in both of them.”

The new store opened officially on Sept. 29 with free cookies, $1 hotdogs and gas priced at $2.99 for one eight-hour celebratory grand opening stretch.

Clyde Simpson at the new 7-11 in Marshall.

Photos by Leonard Shapiro

Check out the Beer Cave in the new store.

“It’s a lot bigger store,” Kim said. “We have probably double the merchandise than the other one and we have to do a lot more traveling to get things done. We see a lot more new faces, and we already are starting to get some regulars coming over from the townhouses behind us. People have been very friendly. We’re always hearing ‘we’re so glad there’s something else on this side of the town.’”

Bernice Simpson splits her time between the new and the old store, and her husband, Clyde, is now helping out at the new one. For many years he had his own popular heating and air conditioning business in the area.

“I thought I was retired,” he said with a smile one morning, standing outside the new store. Clearly, Bernice had a better idea.