Deb Malewski
Contributing Writer
“We’re just a convenience store with a deli business,” Dave Crippen, owner of Swampers Party Stop in Charlotte said. But it’s the pizza at Swampers that seems to be a big favorite with the locals. Whether it’s a breakfast pizza with sausage gravy, eggs, diced potatoes, meat, and cheese, or a more traditional pizza like the Supreme or the Gator Special, they all are delicious and extremely popular.
Swampers also sells subs, tacos, breakfast sandwiches, and burgers, along with beer, wine, pop, cigarettes, and more.
“We’ve really grown the pizza and deli part of the business over the last twenty years,” Crippen said, “Thanks to the support of a great community.”
Crippen started out in the convenience store business because he wanted to be self-employed, he said. The name “Swampers,” was chosen because the former owner, who also happened to be named Dave and called his business “Dave’s” didn’t want to confuse people. Crippen chose an alligator as a business logo, and even put a cement gator in front of the building.
The building originally was a house, many years ago. Crippen has heard stories that it served at one time as a penny candy store and also as a meat market. He knows it was both the North End Grocery Store and the Beer Barrel Party Store, based on the signs that were found in the upstairs of the building. The upstairs was transformed into an apartment in 2003.
The business just recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary on May 1 with much celebration. “We are really blessed to have found such a loyal and dependable community to be located in. They have taken care of us for the last two decades. We are very, very blessed,” Crippen said about being in Charlotte.
“We’re a tight-knit team,” Crippen said of his employees. “We have over 100 years in this building between them and me,” he said. Plus, there are several former employees who come back to help out when needed. “We’ve had generational employees who have grown up, had children and their kids have come back to work at Swampers,” Crippen said.
Crippen also owns the Swampers in Eagle, which is located at 14360 South Grange Road. It was opened in 2004 and is very similar to the store in Charlotte.
Facebook posts have contests and specials listed, and have really boosted their customer following. They were awarded a People’s Choice Award for their pizza from the Lansing City Pulse in 2020.
Contact Swampers by calling 517-543-8299. Visit them on Facebook at #swampers.charlotte.
Swampers is open seven days a week, Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., on Fridays from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m., on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Sunday they are open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.
