Many customers have been waiting more than a week to have their shoes repaired.
By Lisa Chmelecki
Staff writer

LEWISTON – Carol Gagnon paid $22 in advance to get new soles on her favorite cowboy boots.

On Wednesday morning, after stopping by Sugar Bear Shoe Repair every day last week only to find the doors locked, Gagnon took her boots back even though the soles hadn’t been replaced.

An employee of the shop told her that he had been on vacation all week and that he had no idea the store was closed. He told her that he couldn’t give her a refund because he didn’t have any money in the cash register, but he advised her to return later in the day and speak with the owner.

Gagnon was the first of dozens of customers who went to Sugar Bear Shoe Repair Wednesday, looking for their shoes and a refund.

By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the shop’s owner, Zachary Gibbens, still hadn’t arrived.

The employee, who did not want to be identified, didn’t know when Gibbens would return. However, he assured several customers that the shop was not closing.

“We’re just very, very behind,” he repeated to people as they walked through the door.

The reason for the backlog remained a mystery.

The Sun Journal was unable to reach Gibbens Wednesday. The shop’s telephone number has been disconnected, and the owner of the building, Edward Givens, said he also hasn’t heard from his tenant in weeks.

Many customers learned that they weren’t alone in waiting weeks for their shoes when they showed up at the shop Tuesday morning.

A note posted in the store’s window the previous weekend said the shop was closed due to a family emergency and that it would reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

About 15 people showed up that morning. But no one arrived to open the store.

Brown pumps

Katherine Farrell of Poland Spring went, hoping to retrieve her favorite brown pumps. She took the shoes to the shop in early September because they needed new heels, and she paid $7.50 for the work.

It was the first time, she said, that she had been asked to pay in advance.

After weeks went by and she still hadn’t received the usual call letting her know that her shoes were ready, she went to the store. An employee told her that the owner was out sick and he recommended that she come back in a week.

When she returned, she was told that her shoes still weren’t ready because the shop was waiting for a special glue. She returned Monday to find the note on the door.

“At this point, I just want my pumps back,” she said. “You don’t bring a pair of shoes to be repaired unless they are worth it.”

‘A great job’

Customers, including Farrell, were surprised by the situation.

Many of them have been taking their shoes to the Lisbon Street shop since it opened 19 years ago, and they have never had a problem.

“He always did a great job,” Farrell said. “He told me when I dropped off my shoes that it would take a little longer than usual, then he asked me to pay in advance. I thought it was strange.”

The employee working at the store Wednesday said the shop has been collecting payments in advance since Jan. 1. He didn’t know why Gibbens made the change.

As customers entered the store, one immediately after the other, the employee scrambled to find their shoes. In some cases, he couldn’t find them and he explained to people that their shoes were mixed in with about 200 others.

‘Only shoes’

The employee told one man who wanted to drop off a pair of boots that the shop wasn’t accepting new business for at least a week.

Some people were more patient than others.

“They are only shoes,” said one man who decided to leave his motorcycle boots there, hoping they would eventually get repaired. “But it is weird. I’ve been coming here for years.”

Some customers had heard that Gibbens was ill. The employee confirmed that Gibbens was sick, but said that he had recovered about five weeks ago.

“Maybe he just decided to take his vacation at the same time I took mine,” the employee said, before going to the back to look for a pair of loafers.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com

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