Tarrytown Trading Post: Small Store in a Small Town

Tarrytown has one major business in the city: the Tarrytown Trading Post, a merchandise and sandwich shop which Chelsea Poole would describe as “hole in the wall type thing.”

“If you’re riding by, you would never think that this is what’s in here, just from outward,” said Poole.

Brian and Donna Whitaker, Poole’s parents, originally owned a bakery in Soperton. Eight years ago, Brian discovered a love for auctions from a friend, and so got his own auctioneer license and began loading goods into his small car.

“He had a friend that was doing it, and he really liked it, so he started off buying it in a little bitty car,” said Donna. “That’s how he hauled his merchandise, and then we opened up the store.”

Brian started his own auction house, the Tarrytown Trading Post Auction, to sell general merch and pallet pulls. The Tarrytown Trading Post was started five years ago, originally to sell off surplus material not sold at auction in the wake of COVID-19.

“I call this the scrap store, because what doesn’t sell at the auction, we can bring down here,” said Poole.

Eventually, while still selling surplus from the auction house, the store grew into a standalone business in its own right. 

Poole also ran a homemade ice cream stand in the store, which she later grew into the Tarrytown Bakery + Deli during June of 2025. While in the same building and part of the Trading Post, the Deli is completely owned by Poole, and she said the deli was a major success.

“We really have seen a tremendous amount of growth just in the past few months,” said Poole. 

The Deli offers homemade sandwiches made using Amish meats and cheeses and homemade bread as ingredients, as well as salads and a collection of homemade sweets including cheesecake, pecan pies, oatmeal cream pies, cookie sandwiches, full cookie trays and cinnamon rolls. One advertisement calls their cinnamon rolls “the backbone of the county.”

“My sister comes in, if not once a week, every other week and makes those cinnamon rolls,” said Poole.

The store is completely operated by Poole’s family with the sole exception of family friend Sarah Wheeler, who Poole describes as being as close as family anyway.

In addition to offering goods and food, the store offers a friendly environment which encourages customers to linger and return for more.

“My favorite thing when people come here is not that they just get their food to leave,” said Wheeler. “They stay around because it’s a friendly environment.”