DraftBeginnings · Armstrong Mercantile

The Carport That Started It All

The Pecking Order Diaries · Building a business, raising a family, and occasionally wondering what on earth I’ve gotten myself into.

My original plan for Armstrong Mercantile was actually pretty simple. At least, I thought it was.

We already had a house. And we already had a carport.

What more could a girl need to open a grocery store? 😂

I wanted to enclose and modify the carport into the actual little store where customers could shop.

In my head, it made perfect sense.

I wasn’t trying to build some giant grocery operation. I wanted to make use of what we already had and give Armstrong somewhere local to shop.

And then I started learning about zoning, building codes, permits, and all the other things that apparently don’t disappear just because you’ve come up with a really good idea.

That was when my little carport project started getting considerably more complicated.

It never made it past the planning stage.

The Mercantile eventually turned into Pecking Order Produce & Provisions, an online-first marketplace for Missouri farmers and makers. That’s a different story.

More on that one later.