diff --git a/chainqueue/store/__init__.py b/chainqueue/store/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32bc4f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chainqueue/store/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+from .base import (
+        to_key,
+        from_key,
+        Store,
+        )
diff --git a/chainqueue/store.py b/chainqueue/store/base.py
similarity index 100%
rename from chainqueue/store.py
rename to chainqueue/store/base.py
diff --git a/chainqueue/store/fs.py b/chainqueue/store/fs.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa49a63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chainqueue/store/fs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+# standard imports
+import os
+import logging
+
+# external imports
+from leveldir.hex import HexDir
+
+logg = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class IndexStore(HexDir):
+
+    def __init__(self, root_path, digest_bytes=32):
+        os.path.join(root_path, 'contents')
+        self.store = HexDir(root_path, digest_bytes)
+
+
+    def put(self, k, v):
+        kb = bytes.fromhex(k)
+        vb = v.encode('utf-8')
+        self.store.add(kb, vb)
+
+
+    def get(self, k):
+        fp = self.store.to_filepath(k)
+        f = open(fp, 'rb')
+        v = f.read()
+        f.close()
+        return v.decode('utf-8')
+
+
+class CounterStore:
+
+    def __init__(self, root_path):
+        try:
+            os.stat(root_path)
+        except FileNotFoundError:
+            os.makedirs(root_path)
+
+        fp = os.path.join(root_path, '.counter')
+        f = None
+        try:
+            f = open(fp, 'rb+')
+        except FileNotFoundError:
+            logg.debug('counter not found, creating new in {}'.format(fp))
+            f = open(fp, 'wb+')
+            f.write(b'\x00' * 8)
+            f.close()
+            f = open(fp, 'rb+')
+    
+        v = f.read(8)
+        self.count = int.from_bytes(v, byteorder='big')
+        logg.info('counter starts at {}'.format(self.count))
+    
+        f.seek(0)
+
+        self.f = f
+
+
+    def __del__(self):
+        self.f.close()
+
+
+    def next(self):
+        c = self.count
+        self.count += 1
+        v = self.count.to_bytes(8, 'big')
+        self.f.write(v)
+        self.f.seek(0)
+        return c
diff --git a/tests/base_shep.py b/tests/base_shep.py
index 46bbe12..1c97f6c 100644
--- a/tests/base_shep.py
+++ b/tests/base_shep.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # standard imports
 import tempfile
 import unittest
+import shutil
 
 # external imports
 from shep.store.file import SimpleFileStoreFactory
@@ -13,22 +14,10 @@ from chainqueue import (
         )
 
 # test imports
-from tests.common import MockCounter
-
-
-
-class MockContentStore:
-
-    def __init__(self):
-        self.store = {}
-
-
-    def put(self, k, v):
-        self.store[k] = v
-
-
-    def get(self, k):
-        return self.store.get(k)
+from tests.common import (
+        MockCounter,
+        MockContentStore,
+        )
 
 
 class TestShepBase(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -41,3 +30,7 @@ class TestShepBase(unittest.TestCase):
         counter = MockCounter()
         chain_spec = ChainSpec('foo', 'bar', 42, 'baz')
         self.store = Store(chain_spec, self.state, content_store, counter)
+
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        shutil.rmtree(self.path)
diff --git a/tests/common.py b/tests/common.py
index 59c1efe..0861cb5 100644
--- a/tests/common.py
+++ b/tests/common.py
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@ class MockCacheTokenTx(CacheTokenTx):
         z = h.digest()
         tx_hash = z.hex()
 
-        #tx = CacheTokenTx(normalizer=self.normalizer)
         self.init(tx_hash, nonce, sender, recipient, value)
         self.set('src_token', token)
         self.set('dst_token', token)
@@ -90,4 +89,15 @@ class MockCacheTokenTx(CacheTokenTx):
         return self
 
 
+class MockContentStore:
 
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.store = {}
+
+
+    def put(self, k, v):
+        self.store[k] = v
+
+
+    def get(self, k):
+        return self.store.get(k)
diff --git a/tests/test_integrate.py b/tests/test_integrate.py
index 4337337..33da5b5 100644
--- a/tests/test_integrate.py
+++ b/tests/test_integrate.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ from tests.common import (
         MockCounter,
         MockTokenCache,
         MockCacheTokenTx,
+        MockContentStore,
         )
 from tests.base_shep import TestShepBase
 
@@ -25,20 +26,6 @@ logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
 logg = logging.getLogger()
 
 
-class MockContentStore:
-
-    def __init__(self):
-        self.store = {}
-
-
-    def put(self, k, v):
-        self.store[k] = v
-
-
-    def get(self, k):
-        return self.store.get(k)
-
-
 class TestIntegrateBase(TestShepBase):
 
     def setUp(self):
diff --git a/tests/test_store.py b/tests/test_store.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a352140
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_store.py
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# standard imports
+import os
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+import logging
+import shutil
+
+# external imports
+
+# local imports
+from chainqueue.store.fs import (
+        IndexStore,
+        CounterStore,
+        )
+
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
+logg = logging.getLogger()
+
+class TestStoreImplementations(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.path = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+      
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        shutil.rmtree(self.path)
+
+    
+    def test_basic_index(self):
+        store = IndexStore(self.path)
+        hx = os.urandom(32).hex()
+        data = 'foo_bar_baz'
+        store.put(hx, data)
+        r = store.get(hx)
+        self.assertEqual(data, r)
+
+
+    def test_basic_counter(self):
+        store = CounterStore(self.path)
+        v = store.next()
+        self.assertEqual(v, 0)
+        v = store.next()
+        self.assertEqual(v, 1)
+
+        store = CounterStore(self.path)
+        v = store.next()
+        self.assertEqual(v, 2)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main()