NORWAY – Another vacant storefront on Main Street will soon be filled.
At a news conference Tuesday, Brett Doney of the Oxford Hills Growth Council announced that the Maine Made Shop plans to open a branch where the Maine Discovery Store used to be.
The Maine Made Shop is based in Waterville and has stores in Augusta and Belgrade Lakes. The shop, which carries products from 120 Maine crafters, was started 28 years ago by owners George and Paula Gordon. The Gordons’ plan for the Norway store is to combine the Maine Made Shop with a “Things From Away” section, and to also integrate the Gordons’ other business, Adams and Worth Home Furnishings.
Doney said the council has “been working for quite some time to find the right store to come in and be an anchor for downtown Norway, and we have definitely found it. We’re convinced that this is going to be a huge plus to the downtown and other businesses.”
Doney credited the many groups working to improve downtown Norway with bringing in the business. “By working together,” he said, “we’re starting to make things happen.”
One of the people who worked to bring the Maine Made Shop to the area is Enterprise Maine board member Wendy Newmeyer. When Newmeyer started her business, Maine Balsam Fir, more than 20 years ago, she contacted the Maine Made Shop about selling her balsam pillows. She has since become a major supplier of the store, and feels that it will do well in Norway. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand” for a new store at that location, she said.
George Gordon, who called his wife, Paula, “the real brains of the operation,” was a bit overwhelmed by the attention he received Tuesday. “Even though we’ve been around for a while,” he said, “please don’t view us as anything more than we are, which is a simple mom and pop store.” Gordon said that even though his store has been on Maine Street in Waterville for years, he and his wife are only recently seeing people walk from store to store, rather than driving to one Main Street store then driving home.
“That’s our goal,” he said, to attract shoppers not only to the Maine Made Store but to other businesses on Main Street.
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