
Glens Falls Business Journal photo
By Susan Elise Campbell
This past July, the iconic Nemec’s Sports Shop became Green River Lumber General Store. Karen Ovitt, owner of Green River Lumber, said she took advantage of the opportunity to purchase the business that had graced Main Street in Warrensburg for 52 years.
“The community depended on Nemec’s for animal feed, propane, hunting licenses, bait and lures, and more,” said Ovitt. “We are going to fill their legacy by offering these staples, which are hard to find elsewhere, and regularly introduce new things for the locals and tourists who visit us.”
The new store does not sell guns and ammunition as before, she said. But it has added items to decorate the home and yard as well as gifts.
The location at 4036 Main Street is only about a mile away from Ovitt’s original location, where she housed a retail business, Green River Lumber, and its inventory of sustainable reclaimed plywood, redwood, and quality hardwood flooring under the Superior Flooring brand.
In the past, shoppers of the lumber products had to walk through a warehouse and up to the second floor of their building to see samples. That location remains open as a place for overstock and a small flooring showroom has been set up on the main floor of the new location.
“Customers are surprised walking in for sporting gear and seeing some flooring,” said Ovitt. “The showroom is the primary thing that has changed and makes the new store look different from the old.”
Ovitt purchased virtually everything that was left in the store when it closed its doors. There is hunting and camping equipment and seasonal clothing such as flannels and sweatshirts. She said she is using the same vendors and suppliers as Nemec’s and adding new items.
“The general store is evolving,” she said. “I didn’t have a store before when this opportunity arose and I wanted to continue what was established here.”
Ovitt worked in retail before founding Green River Lumber, which at one time was the name of a flooring supplier long out of business. She said her husband had the name trademarked in 2013.
One of the things she enjoyed doing in her retail days was making displays. Today when entering the general store, there is a table out front that Ovitt decorates seasonally with candies and different items that may appeal to a variety of shoppers.
“I always liked doing the displays,” she said. “It comes natural to me.”
But also, “once upon a time, a lifetime ago,” Ovitt dreamed of opening a trading post, a concept which is not unlike the atmosphere in her general store today, she said.
Closing on the business and getting her bearings in a brand new kind of venture has been a whirlwind for the entrepreneur.
“I’ve been too busy for a grand opening,” she said.
Watch for a public event to celebrate the new Green River Lumber General Store in downtown Warrensburg, and learn more on Facebook.