Holley True Value on the corner of Water Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Street has served the Selma community for over 50 years.

Despite continued support from the community since its establishment, the store will close its doors for the final time on August 5.

Alden Holley, the third-generation owner of the store, has taken a sales position with Knox Kershaw, Inc., a company that manufactures railway maintenance equipment in Montgomery.

After hearing about the position from his brother, Will, an engineer with the company, Holley interviewed for the job. After receiving the offer Holley faced a difficult decision but ultimately felt the position with Knox Kershaw was one he had to take.

“It was too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said.

Holley said that closing the store is a bittersweet feeling for both he and his family.

The history of his family’s business goes back three generations, beginning with his grandfather, Elam.

Holley spent his formative years helping out at the store and eventually took over from his father, Ralph, after a car accident forced him into retirement in 2009.

“I feel like I was born and raised in this store,” said Holley. When I was a kid we’d get picked up from school and come straight here. We’d wake up early on Saturday mornings and be here all day.”

Though the Holley family is looking forward to getting away from the constant stress of owning a small business, they all agree that it will be a sad day when the store closes.

“It’s a sad event for all of us to close it after nearly 60 years,” said Holley. “It’s a really hard thing to do. I’m going to miss being here every day.”

Holley said that he, and his family, are deeply thankful to all of their customers throughout the years.

Out of everything, Holley says he’ll miss his relationships with his customers the most.

“We really appreciate all of the business we’ve gotten over the years,” he said. “Selma’s been good to us”

In the meantime, the store is working on clearing out its inventory with a going out of business sale.

“There’s nothing in the store that’s not marked down,” said Holley. “We’ve got a lot of good stuff. We’ve always been one of those stores where you don’t know what all we’ve got until you come in and take a look.”