Matt Luther, owner of
The Peanut Shoppe, remembers as a child tagging along with parents or grandparents to the downtown Springfield staple.
Freshly roasted nuts? Chocolates and other candies? A kid doesn’t exactly need to be dragged there.
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Andrew GrimmThe Peanut Shoppe, 1576 E. Main Street“Then I kind of lost contact with it as I went through high school and college,” Luther says during a recent phone interview. “But when I was back to living day-to-day in Springfield, I reconnected with it and always had a soft spot for the store because I just thought it was the coolest store in town.”
Opened in 1937 by Planters as a National Peanut Corporation store, according to The Peanut Shoppe’s website, the business has been owned by several families since the 1960s.
In 2018, following nearly a decade and a half in the insurance business and looking to do something new after raising three children with his wife, Amy, Luther read in
a newspaper article that its then-owners, Tim and Laurel Shouvlin, were interested in selling it to someone who would keep it going. It was an opportunity worth exploring, he decided.
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Andrew GrimmThe Peanut Shoppe still uses the original Planters peanut roaster, from when the shop was a franchise, even though most materials with the brand's name were destroyed in the 40s when Planters shut down its franchises.With Amy, who has experience owning small businesses, as a co-owner, Luther took over the business seven years ago, seeking to improve upon a winning formula.
He seized on the chance to buy the building. He then moved the retail part of the operation into the space that for decades had been home to Whitacre Pharmacy and kept the kitchen where it was, more than doubling the overall footprint of The Peanut Shoppe to what he estimates is about 4,000 square feet.
“We kind of redesigned it, but I wanted to keep the old-time peanut shop (vibe),” he says. “It’s of that era of the 30s and 40s in America.”
However, he also has significantly added to its offerings, including coffee, maple syrup, honey, and jam, all from local suppliers, he says.
“[The idea was to] give people more reasons to come in and shop at the store year-round as opposed to Christmas, Father’s Day, that kind of thing,” Luther says. “That’s been the fun of it – growing the business and finding new ways to get people in the door, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”
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Andrew GrimmPeanuts, syrups, and candies line the shelves and display cases at The Peanut Shoppe.That said, he’s worked to ensure the focus isn’t lost.
“I don’t want it to ever stop being a peanut shop, and it won’t be,” he says. “That’s still the main focus of our store – our peanuts and chocolates – and, you know, all the other stuff is just more add-on.”
He’s also seen to a redesign of the website and, relatedly, a significant expansion of the e-commerce arm of the business.
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Andrew GrimmThe Peanut Shoppe offers a variety of treats for customers to choose from.“The old website just had, like, nuts and a few chocolate items that you could purchase,” he says. “The new space has more. It almost has everything that we have for sale.
“We’re kind of limited, obviously,” he continues. “You can’t ship chocolates when it’s 85 or 90 degrees outside, so we do most of our business in the cooler temperatures.”
He does note one steady demographic, however.
“There are former Springfielders out there across the United States who remember The Peanut Shoppe, and once a month they want their pound of cashews – or two pounds of cashews and pecans – sent to them in Arizona or Florida or wherever they’re at.”
He says his favorite aspects of the gig start with being his own boss.
“And then, it sounds kind of silly, but every [business] owner I’ve talked to has said the same thing: It’s the customers – the repeat customers,” Luther adds. “We have the people that we see and we can tell you the days that they’re gonna be there during the week and the times they’re gonna show up.”
The biggest challenge is always pricing, he says, complicated recently by President Donald Trump’s ever-evolving trade war with other nations, which has led to the increase of some tariffs.
“The bulk of our products are domestic, which is good,” Luther says. “Most of the nuts are grown here in the States, either down South or out in California. But still, my cashews are coming from Vietnam. I think I have only one product that comes from China.”
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Andrew GrimmMadelene Kot making fresh popcorn at The Peanut Shoppe.He adds that the price of chocolate has gone up due to issues with cocoa fields in West Africa.
“My challenge is to stay ahead of those [issues] and make sure I’m still making the margins that enable me to keep the lights and the doors open and make it a worthwhile venture.”
Ultimately, Luther says, the freshness is what distinguishes The Peanut Shoppe. You can get these types of items at large chain outlets, but they’re “not gonna taste as good as our products,” the resident of Springfield since 1975 insists.
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Andrew GrimmThe Peanut Shoppe opened in 1937 by Planters as a National Peanut Corporation store.“Our biggest key is getting people in the door,” he says. “Once they walk in the door and they get the smell of the fresh roasted nuts or the smell of the popcorn, that stamps a pretty good little memory in their brains.
“If they come in one time, they’re gonna come back.”
The Peanut Shoppe is located at 1576 E. Main St.