CHARLOTTE, NC: Purina Mills, America's leading feed and grain producer, is opening a new line of stores under its familiar red and white checkerboard logo. "America's Country Store" will feature Purina products and upscale farm and garden stock, especially horsefarm tack and equipment. The first America's Country Store recently opened in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where it previously traded as Rolling Hills Country Store.

Building on new sites and renovating existing dealerships, Purina Mills expects to roll out 200 such stores across the nation. In four years, company officials say, they expect to double that figure. Each store will tailor its merchandise to the needs of the region.

Purina Mills has hired Divaris Real Estate as their exclusive representative in the search for new sites. Gary White, of Divaris in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently represented Purina Mills in the $800,000 purchase of commercial land in Johnson City, Tennessee. The seller was East Tennessee Land and Auction. Located on Old Gray Station Road, this seven-acre site will hold a 5,000 square foot warehouse as well as a 5,000 square foot, free-standing retail store. The store will be built in a peaked-roof Churchill Downs horse-barn style, with a nostalgic grain elevator.

This design will be used on all the stores, new or retrofitted. The view of any America's Country Store will bring to mind America's rural heritage.

Inside, the stores will be stocked with high quality country lifestyle goods: hardware, pet supplies, birdseed, lawn and garden tools, prefabricated horse stalls, and quality saddles. The stores will be open seven days a week.

A prototype exhibition store opened in St. Louis in time for the National Charity Horse Show this year. At present,18 America's Country Stores are open for business in the Midwest, West, and North and South Carolina.

This renewal of the old country store concept answers a marketing trend. Retail planners at Purina Mills designed the store to capture the growing "ruralpolitan" market, described as suburban hobby farmers.

"Our customer base has recently expanded to include the growing number of non-farm animal owners," a Purina Mills spokesman says, explaining the America's Country Store concept. "We are finding new marketing pathways to reach our changing customer base."

Founded by William H. Danforth in 1894 under the motto "Aspire nobly, adventure daringly, and serve humbly," Purina Mills began as a one-man, one-horse, mule feed supply store. Now Purina Mills, based in St. Louis, is the leading commercial animal feed producer in America. It makes about 5 million tons of dry kibble a year, employs over 2,500 people, and provides feed for over 400 animal species, including llamas, monkeys, and exotic zoo animals. Purina Mills (which spun off its parent company, Ralston Purina, in 1986) also operates a 1.188 acre research center in Missouri, where studies in animal nutrition are conducted.