Rural King history

Then in the year 1966, the first warehouse of the company was also established as well.

In 1970, land was purchased across from the Edgar County Fairgrounds and the new Paris Rural King was constructed.

A new Rural King was built in November 1973 on Van Tran Avenue, which has been renamed Veterans Avenue.

A new building was finished and opened in September 1976.

Keith Beaird, Kermit's original partner, died in 1978.

In 1979, Gary Melvin, nephew of Kermit Speer, purchased an interest in Rural King.

Bruce Speer, nephew of Kermit Speer, purchased an interest in Rural King in 1982, with the opening of the Litchfield, Ill., store.

In 1985, he and his family moved to Terre Haute, Ind., where he opened and managed that store for five years.

In 1990, Bruce moved to the Mattoon corporate office to help with purchasing and expansion of the Rural King stores.

In 1999, a new store, warehouse and corporate office consisting of 210,000 square feet was opened across the highway from the old store.

In 2010, a third warehouse expansion was started that will add 104,000 square feet.

In December 2015 Rural King announced they had reached, for the first time, $1 Billion in total sales.

In 2017, Rural King purchased the Cross County Mall in Mattoon, Illinois.

In July 2018, Rural King finalized their plans for the mall and decided to move the Mattoon Rural King store location into the former Sears space to drive more traffic to the mall and other businesses in the area.