Last Employer Has Retired And Closed Their Store

Discussion in 'Jobs I Have Had' started by Thomas Stillhere, Jun 16, 2022.

  1. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    Got a call from my old employer's wife and she told me they were busy cutting grass around the store and cleaning up. They have finally retired and it is mainly due to her husband not being in good health. She said she just couldn't handle everything by herself. They were really great to work for and I missed the morning coffee with all the old guys who would come into the hardware store every morning and have coffee before opening time. All of those old guys are dead now and the first time I ever was at their store was about 25 years ago, I was working for a local farmer near their store and he had an account so I would often go and grab something he needed. I never dreamed I would one day work there but I did 13 years ago. I loved working for them and that's half the battle with any job, if you like the people and what you do then work is easy. I miss those lunch time dinners from the nearby sugar mill and one other small business on a little cove near the hardware store. I hope to try and go visit them some day soon and not wait too long to do it. So it is thundering again and round two of rain storms is starting.
     
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  2. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Just a suggestion Thomas.
    You seem to have a few anecdotal things going on and they’re interesting so maybe you ought to think about starting sort of a journal in the Diary section.
    Even though other people can reply and make whatever comments, you’d have everything all nicely wrapped up like a book.
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    That must be a thing with small-town hardware stores, or maybe larger ones as well, which was also played out in Tim Allen's Home Improvement series. The True Value store here in Millinocket was never known as True Value; rather, it was known as Levasseur's, for the guy who had owned it for several years. It was the kind of store where regular customers would hang out, and the employees would learn everyone's names. If you were new to the store, it was hard to figure out who was an employee because anyone in the store would be able to help you with whatever you needed. As in the Home Improvement comedy, there was even a coffee pot.

    It was the kind of place where, if I had forgotten my wallet, they'd tell me that I could pay for it later.

    Curiously, Levasseur was on the other side of a heated political fight that we had here in town, which my wife and I were very much a part of, but he didn't let that filter into his business, so I never felt unwelcome there.

    Levasseur's contrasted with the other hardware store, where the owner was a jerk. The other store caters to contractors, and the owner has no tolerance for anyone who doesn't know what he needs, or what he's looking for. Even the contractors recognized that he was a jerk, but his prices were better, for large volume purchases, and I think he carried some stuff that Levasseur's didn't.

    A few years ago, Levasseur retired and closed his store. While it was closed, anything that I would have otherwise bought from Levasseur's, I bought online or in Bangor, if we went there for something else.

    About a year ago, someone else bought the old Levasseur's store and reopened it as a True Value, although he hasn't reopened the lumber yard, which is sad, because it was one house away from being across the street from me. Probably because it had been closed for a couple of years, the new store is no longer known as Levasseur's, which is often the case when someone buys an ongoing business but is now known as True Value.

    The new owner rehired a couple of the former employees, and everyone there is nice enough. There's no coffee pot, and I no longer see people hanging around there. So it's a nice enough store, carrying most everything that anyone might need for home improvement projects, but the only employees I know by name are the ones who had worked there before, and it's not Levasseur's.
     
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  4. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    your writings are captivating ...a diary of sorts from your thoughts and life would be interesting
     
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