Signal Food Stores celebrated the grand opening of their latest location with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, April 9. The store, located at 1750 State Highway 14 East in Ozark, is Signal’s thirteenth location, and the second in Ozark. It offers gasoline, a beer cave, bean-to-cup coffee, food, soft drinks, and more. It also features several photos from the Bruce Pegram Collection at Christian County Library.
In addition to the ribbon cutting ceremony, there were several giveaways, including t-shirts, beef jerky, candy, soft drinks, and pizza. Bubbles, the Coca-Cola bear, was also on hand to take pictures with guests. Additionally, Signal offered discounts on gasoline purchases, as well as drawings for various prizes.
The new Signal was opened in a formerly abandoned building. Jami Jordan, the president and owner of Signal Food Stores, said the location was chosen due to the building having once been a convenience store, as well as an increase in traffic along Highway 14 between Ozark and Sparta.
“This was a convenience store many years ago,” she said, “and it had been abandoned and run down and not operating at all. And this road right here is becoming extremely busy between Sparta and Ozark. And Sean (Bumgarner), our vice president, is always back and forth from Sparta and Ozark, because he lives in Sparta. And we were noticing this, and we'd had our eye on it for a long time. And when it became (available) for sale, we thought, ‘This is a great location.’
Jordan said there was also a sentimental connection to her father, the late Richard Scrivener, who founded Signal Food Stores in 1984. The location had its soft opening on Thursday, March 5, which would have been Scrivener’s 78th birthday.
“We were able to open on his birthday … which was really neat,” she said.
Additionally, as an Ozark native, Jordan said, she was glad to be able to open a new store in her hometown.
“I grew up here, and graduated from Ozark High School,” she said. “So, I love doing business here.
“We love Ozark. We love being in Ozark.”
Bradley A. Jackson, Christian County eastern district commissioner, was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony. He called the new Signal a welcome addition to Ozark and Christian County.
“Anytime that we have new economic development happening in our county, we think it's great,” he said. “And you know, when you take a piece of infrastructure like what was here that was underutilized, (and) somebody decides to come in and invest a lot of money into a brand-new state-of-the-art facility, it's exciting … that they're wanting to invest in our community.”
All Signal Food Store locations are open 24 hours a day.
