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Back in 1935, Julian D. Cromer, a truck farmer from Lexington County, opened a one-man operation selling produce and peanuts at the farmer's market because he was fed up with having to eat stale peanuts every time he brought a load of produce into Columbia to sell at the curb market on Assembly Street. He decided to give the peanut business a try. He added peanuts to his produce stand, insisting that they always be fresh, roasting a new batch every morning. To ensure that the peanuts would be fresh daily, Cromer discarded any that were left over at the end of each day.
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Business was fair to middlin' until an incident in 1937 launched Cromer's Peanuts toward legendary status. A competitor bought a small roaster and set up a peanut stand right across from Cromer. Every time a customer would stop at our stand, he'd yell, "Don't buy those. Mine are best. Mine are best. Cromer's are no good." One day Cromer got aggravated, picked up a piece of cardboard, and wrote, "Worst in Town" on it and placed it next to his stand. A short time later he boldly "guaranteed" that they were "the worst in town." Curious to discover how "the worst" peanuts in town tasted, people flocked to Cromer's stand. The slogan stuck and attracted a lot of attention.
The "Guaranteed Worst in Town" slogan helped establish Cromer's as one of the leading peanut businesses in the world. By 1939, Cromer's peanuts were so popular the founder gave up selling other produce to dedicate all his time to the peanut business. With his four sons and two employees, Cromer cooked the peanuts in a 20-pound roaster that was cranked by hand and bagged the peanuts by hand.
In those days, there was never a shortage of men and boys in downtown Columbia who were looking for a way to earn some quick money. Peanut-peddling was a popular source of income. Cromer's would sell bags of peanuts at his stand or to the peanut peddlers for 3 cents, and they would sell them for a nickel. From the early days, Julian Cromer delighted in amusing his customers with negative slogans as the picture below illustrates.
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The first home of Cromer's P-nuts, the curb market that ran down the middle of Assembly Street, was an early center of attraction in the capital city. In the old days, Saturday was an important day. Everyone came to town and the three-or four-block stretch starting at Senate Street was the focal point of these crowds. Shops and stands would stay open until 10 or11 at night. The streets would be packed with people visiting and shopping.
But in 1950 when the Farmers' Market was moved out near the fairgrounds, Cromer's decided not to move. Instead the business moved into the old Drake Edens grocery building in the 1200 block of Assembly, almost directly across the street from the original location of the curb market stand. In the mid-50s, satisfied carnival and circus customers convinced Cromer to add equipment and supplies to make popcorn, snow cones, candy apples, bubble gum, cotton candy and novelties. With this addition Cromer's was well on the way to becoming the "store that sells a lot more than P-nuts." During the early 1960s, Cromer's expansion increased to include almost all the buildings along the 1200 block of Assembly Street. /P>
In1984, another expansion took place, and the company now sells more than 4,000 items from over 50,000 catalogs that are mailed to customers worldwide. The company that started out as a one-man operation selling only peanuts in 1935 has grown to become one of the largest concessions and novelties suppliers in the world today.