History/ Ownership
Our History
Quimper Mercantile is a totally unique store in Jefferson County — and possibly the world! When Jefferson County’s last general store closed in 2012, citizens got together with the mission of creating a new general store to make sure that household and clothing needs could be supplied at home, and that local retail dollars and retail jobs could be kept in the community. A volunteer board of civic and business leaders started meeting in 2012 and decided to launch a startup with a unique financial base that was both broad and very local. A specific, limited class of stock was decided upon. A group of 12 founding shareholders purchased 1014 shares at $50 per share, raising $50,700 for startup funds. That was followed by a public offering of a certain stock class in February of 2014. Quimper raised $641,200 from 800 shareholders who paid $100 per share during the public offering. The public campaign emphasized, “Are you IN?” At the end of the initial stock effort the new store raised $691,900 from 812 shareholders, almost all of them local residents.
Want to be a Quimper owner?
Today, Quimper Mercantile Company is not licensed to broker sales of shares. We do, however, have the ability to assist in the resale of stock from individual to individual. Marty Gay, one of the original founders and Quimper’s Chief Financial Officer, is the contact point for anyone interested in selling or buying shares. Marty’s role is informational: He connects the potential buyer with the potential seller. Once an agreement is made between the parties, Marty records the changes and prints new certificates. This is not a stock market. Marty provides no advice as to price but only confirms that the seller has the number of shares they are selling. To date we have seen three exchanges via purchase. You can contact CFO Marty Gay at: martini@olympus.net Want more information about Quimper’s history and financial structure? The link below is to a pdf slide presentation used early in Quimper’s establishment: