LEWISTON -A new business will throw open its doors Friday, offering an assortment of discount merchandise while breathing life into one of the downtown’s vacant storefronts.

Steve Bolles of Auburn was helping crews unload boxes and set up displays Thursday afternoon in the old McCrory department store building, which he purchased just two months ago. Over the past six weeks, Bolles cleaned up the place, got the proper permits and began unloading tractor trailers of merchandise into the Lisbon Street building.

That merchandise goes on sale Friday when Final Harvest opens. The inventory runs the gamut from toys to sporting goods to housewares, but the real lure are the prices, he says.

“Look at this,” Bolles said Thursday as he guided a visitor to the toy aisle where Rose Art glitter gel is displayed. The original sticker price of $4.99 is crossed out and $2.50 written in. “These are half the price you’d pay elsewhere.”

Two-liter bottles of Coke were selling for 79 cents. CD racks that he said sell at another discount retailer for $29.99 were priced at $6.

“Everything is just cheaper,” he said, and there are no damaged goods.

Bolles is banking on low prices to create the traffic he needs for Final Harvest to turn a profit. If it does – and he says he should know in about a month – Bolles is planning to open two more Final Harvest stores in other Maine cities whose downtowns could use a retail boost.

“I’m hoping to set up 10 to 12 stores in Maine before moving out of state,” he said.

Bolles gets the inventory to stock Final Harvest’s 18,000-square-foot-floor space from New Jersey, where he has warehouses full of stock from another of his businesses, Merchants Barter Exchange.

The exchange is a network of companies that swap goods or services for credits that are used to get other goods or services. Sometimes the exchanges result in surplus inventory for Bolles. He transports the merchandise to Maine using a trucking firm he co-owns.

“I’m trying to get everything to feed into everything else,” he said of his network of businesses.

He plans to offer 4,000 square feet of groceries as soon as he gets the refrigeration units in place. He said the grocery idea stemmed from discussions he had with city officials who urged him to consider offering food items because of the number of nearby elderly residents who have a hard time getting to a supermarket. Oak Park elderly housing facility is almost across the street from the store.

He’s already met some of his elderly neighbors, many of whom have been popping in to check on the store’s progress and to share stories from the days when the store was Kresge’s.

“They’ve been coming in to tell me about shopping here or working here in the ’40s,” he said with a laugh. “They know this place inside and out.”

Bolles plans to open the store from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

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