Foxworth Pawn & Trade, located at 123 Mississippi 587, is far more than your average pawn shop and carries a variety of items.
“We’re a small-loan-type operation,” Manager Gary Holman said. “We pawn almost anything of value — tools, guns, electronics, music equipment, jewelry — if it’s worth money and I can sell it, we pawn it. We also buy and trade stuff, and we’re also considered a gun shop in the area because around 90 percent of our hand guns are new and around 40 percent of our long guns are new. We carry all the ammunition, accessories and hunting stuff you need. We’re also a bait shop, too.”
Holman got his start in the pawn shop business at a rather young age.
“I was 21, needed a job and my first cousin married a man that was best friends with the man who owned this shop previously,” he explained. “They got into a partnership for the one in Columbia. They asked if I wanted to put in an application, and I started working there while I was going to school at night.”
Holman, who runs the Foxworth shop along with Michael “Twin” Lord, said he truly enjoys the work and likes the unpredictability of it.
“You have to be a people person. You can’t be someone that doesn’t like to work with the public,” he said. “You have to have very good patience to do this type of work. You can have people that come in just to buy a gun, but you can have some pretty out there people come in trying to pawn something that’s worth $10 for $100. You run into all sorts of people. I never know what to expect.”
Foxworth Pawn & Trade carries almost everything for the myriad of people that walk through the door.
“I want it to grow, continue to progress and be a good place to go for the community. It’s the type of place people come to get a good deal,” Holman said. “I’m not married to anything in here; I’ll let it go. It’s a family-type place also. We keep toys in stock for children, purses, wallets and jewelry for the ladies — I try to have something for anybody that walks through the door.”
Holman, who is active in the community and said he is all in for anything that helps Columbia grow, also stocks Helanbak rifles, which are manufactured right here in Columbia.
“There are people who already have AR-15s, but they want that Helanbak AR-15 because it says ‘Columbia, MS’ on it,” he said. “Not only that, but it’s a great product. They’re flawless. They’re right up there with any of the top (manufacturers).”
A big issue with many pawn shops is people attempting to pawn or sell stolen items, but Holman works closely with local police to keep that from happening at his shop.
“I’m in very close contact with the local sheriff’s department and know all of the investigators. If something comes through where I don’t know the person and they act kind of shady — doing this line of work, you learn how to read people a little bit — I call them right away,” he said. “I’ll run serial numbers and ask them if they have one with that serial number missing. If something happens to be that way, they do me the favor in making sure it gets taken care of.”
An aspect that allows Foxworth Pawn & Trade to be successful is its commitment to its customer base.
“If you’re in it to make money and money alone, I don’t see that being successful,” Holman said. “You have to have a heart for what you’re doing and a heart for the people that walk through the door.”
Holman pointed out that many pawn shops — though not the other local shops — don’t take pride in taking care of their items, which has created a negative opinion in the public’s mind.
“I get people that come in here that it’s their first time ever to come into a pawn shop. They have that mentality of never thinking they would come in a pawn shop, but you can walk around our shop and it’s not like being in most pawn shops,” he said. “Some pawn shops are ratty and dirty, and they put used stuff on the shelf and don’t even clean it. But I go the extra mile with every item I pull; I clean it and thoroughly check it. We also have a lot of new items and some neat stuff that you’re not going to be able to walk in Walmart and find. The negative perceptions of a pawn shop — I wish people would just come in and try it. You don’t have to come in to pawn something. You can just come in to look around and shop because we do get some unusual stuff.”
Holman updates the Foxworth Pawn & Trade Facebook page daily, posting about the new items available in the shop, and sells many of those items over the phone to people who work out of town or offshore.
Foxworth Pawn & Trade is open from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, and can be reached by phone at (601) 736-5558.
Pictured Above: Gary Holman, manager of Foxworth Pawn & Trade, stocks a large selection of guns. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
