By Jessica Legge Borders
RIVESVILLE — Brothers Pawn LLC is all about family.
Brothers John Shoemaker Jr. and Steven Shoemaker own the shop, located at 208 Clayton St. in Rivesville. John’s wife, Leesa, and Steven’s wife, April, take care of the books and help out at the business. John and Leesa are residents of Westover, and Steven and April live in Rivesville.
The family-owned and -operated store officially opened Nov. 13. This standard pawn shop buys, sells and trades items, such as electronics, tools, ammunition, hunting and fishing equipment, jewelry, antiques and more.
“We sell items and we give cash for people’s property,” John said.
He said they’ll take “pretty much anything that’s of value.”
Brothers Pawn has applied for a license that will allow it to buy, sell and trade guns in the future, Leesa said. The business also makes cash loans.
John and Steven are originally from the Rivesville area and formerly owned a pawn shop in Reedsville in Preston County. They found that they liked the pawn business and wanted to start a shop in their hometown.
“It’s just something that we enjoy doing,” John said.
“It was important to them to work in the area that they grew up in,” Leesa said. “They know the people out there, and that area needed a pawn shop.”
Leesa said John and Steven found a great location for their business. The space used to be the home of a florist and offers a nice window storefront. Adding security features was the biggest change they had to make to the building.
John said business is starting to pick up a little bit. Now that people have realized that Brothers Pawn is open, the store is starting to get a lot of visitors stopping in to see what it has to offer, Leesa added.
“Being the holidays coming up, the pawn business always does really well,” she said. “People will come in for their cash loans because of Christmas shopping.”
Brothers Pawn LLC is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and will be open on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, call 304-290-1107 or 304-278-5857.
E-mail Jessica Legge Borders at jlegge@timeswv.com.
