At Coy's Produce, it's more than a 40-hour work week

Jessica Johnson
The Post and Courier

Randy Creech Coy opened Coy's Produce earlier this year at a leased site on U.S. Highway 17.

Tables of fruits and vegetables under multicolored umbrellas line U.S. Highway 17 just north of the Isle of Palms connector.

This season at Coy's Produce stand, peaches and tomatoes are pushed to the front.

"Our No. 1 item are the peaches," said Randy Creech Coy.

"No. 2 is the tomato," says Coy's mother, B.J. Carmean.

"Everything else runs neck and neck," Coy said.

Coy and Carmean opened a new produce stand of sorts just past Mount Pleasant Towne Centre in March. He started with tropical plants, swapped to fruits and vegetables and eventually the makeshift stands of cinderblocks and plywood will peddle pumpkins and then Christmas trees.

Coy, 25, started selling produce, plants and trees at 18 in Columbia. It was a family thing.

"My daddy did it. My granddaddy did it. My uncles do it and all of my cousins do it," he said. "All over the state."

But it's not a job he would recommend to his friends.

He tells them to stay in school. He hoped for an education, but he needed to earn a living when he started the stand seven years ago in Columbia.

"It's not for the fainthearted people," Coy said. "It's a whole lot of hours."

The job of buying from farmers and reselling and restocking is a 70- to 80-hour-a-week job with driving figured in. Every other day, he travels hundreds of miles gathering fruits and vegetables from Columbia, Lexington, Johns Island and Spartanburg. He buys from individual farmers and farmers markets, and only the top grades.

"Better can't be bought," Coy said.

Workers stock the stands starting at 5 a.m., although the market officially opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m.

Coy is on leased land for now, but he's not sure for how long. The land is for sale.

Coy takes courses at Midlands Technical College in Columbia and has hopes to enter the University of South Carolina's business school.

"I want something that's 40 hours. Paid vacation? I've never heard of such."

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.