by Kristen De Deyn Kirk
Perched high in her Courtland store, Lori Parker is keeping a secret. She teases that there’s something new, something for the business. She’s excited. Change, including the creation of the loft office she sits in, usually works in her favor.
In 2019, when purchasing the store on Southampton Parkway, Parker’s husband saw the potential to create an airy, open space. All he had to do was ask a contractor to tear down part of the second floor. The resulting loft and the high-ceilinged boutique on the first floor—filled with light, upscale wares, and peanuts—have become Lori’s favorite places.
“He’s so creative,” Lori says of Bob Parker, her husband since 2002 and the president of Parker’s Peanuts since 1998.
While she’s tight-lipped about her secret, beyond saying “it’s very cool,” she freely dishes on Bob. Mutual friends introduced them in 2000 at a Sandbridge beach house. Soon, she was driving mid-week from Richmond to Courtland on her day off from her accounting job. Together, they packed peanuts.
Fred Parker, Bob’s father, was easing his workload. He had founded the company in 1983, after a decades-long career in the Air Force. His wife’s family farm and his love of Virginia peanuts—a large, crunchy, flavorful variety of peanut—were a match. Farmers and shellers readied and certified the peanuts, ensuring their quality and safety; Fred oversaw the roasting, insisting on small batches perfected in 100 percent peanut oil.
The methodology continues 43 years later under Bob’s watchful eye, with two warehouses on the farm and two behind the store. A 10-minute drive separates the old and the new. “We were bursting at the seams,” Lori says about the original warehouses.
As the treasurer of Parker’s Peanuts, she knows all, but she keeps the financial facts for family only, guarding information such as the number of employees, the number of peanuts sold, and the amount of profit generated.
“We are not the biggest,” Lori offers as consolation for not divulging specifics, “nor are we the smallest.”
She does reveal a few details: Bob works with a cook, and their son, Marshall, helps with the business some. Will he and the Parkers’ daughter, Caroline, a freshman at Virginia Tech studying creative writing, take over? Not soon—Lori and Bob are just 55, after all—but one day?
“I really don’t know,” Lori says. “Time will tell.”
Until a new owner (or two?) is in charge, she’ll stay focused on profits in her portion of “peanut country,” where farms and businesses similar to Parker’s Peanuts are plentiful. Most of her revenue is generated from wholesale business, with distributors reselling the packaged nuts. Find them in Publix and Kroger in Coastal Virginia wrapped in the Parker’s Peanuts’ airplane propeller logo, an homage to founder Fred’s Air Force days. Also find them online and in the boutique, with dozens of choices. The Cajun nuts are Lori’s top pick. The “perfect amount of kick and savory flavor,” she enthuses, gives them a slight edge over her second choice—the chocolate-covered peanuts.
Lori reports that online and boutique sales are growing. She curates every trinket, bauble, and objet d’art—from children’s clothing to jewelry to seasonal décor—for the boutique.
“Say someone is going to a shower; they can come in here and find a good-quality product to give,” she explains. “I try to have things for gifting.”
In March, she added consignment clothing and accessories.
Besides a Belk Outlet, there’s nowhere else to shop, she notes. It’s an hour drive to Chesapeake, longer to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
With every gift at Parker’s Peanuts displayed just so, those shopping for a present might succumb to temptation and place a purchase for themselves in their bag—and a latte, available at the coffee bar, in their hand.
“I wear many hats,” Lori says with a laugh. “I’m a peanut packer, a salesperson, a barista.”
She’s a good secret-keeper, too: Despite being prodded again, Lori won’t reveal the big news she hinted at earlier. She’ll only say: “Keep an eye on the website (parkerspeanuts.com) for an update.”
