The new M&M Building Supply in downtown Mathews will have its grand opening on May 4, offering discounts, door prizes and refreshments. The store, which opened for business last week, has the variety and look of a big box store, coupled with a distinctly hometown touch.

Husband-and-wife owners Sterling Hudgins and Kathryn Tatterson said the Do It Best Company, which supplies many of their products, encouraged them to make the store their own, and they’ve done exactly that. The check-out counter at the front of the store was made in the shape of a workboat’s stern, emblazoned with the name “Miss Mathews” by local artist Langley Deagle, and large images of local scenes decorate the upper walls throughout the store.

Among the images is one of Hudgins’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather fishing together in days gone by, while another is the logo used for the Tatterson family’s long-ago peach farm.

But the hearkening backward is all decor...