Remodeling continues on the Route 26 store
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

PARIS – Tom Richards has been logging for more than 20 years, and his wife, Jeanne, has prepared taxes for 19 years.

Now the Oxford couple has bought a store less than a mile out of town and opened Richards’ Route 26 E-Z Stop.

Opening the E-Z stop wasn’t easy.

“The first day in, we started tearing out everything old,” Jeanne said. “We worked around the clock for about a month – painting, scraping, rewiring. We finally completed phase one: Get it up and running and have a clean, well-lit place for the public.”

The E-Z Stop manager and Richards’ son-in-law Rick Marriott said he and friends of the family basically gutted the building. They expanded the convenience store area and changed an existing apartment into a large kitchen and lunch area that seats 20 people.

The Richards are not done, though.

Jeanne said phase two will take a while. They plan to pave the large parking lot, open an ice cream shop and expand the restaurant space to a full service restaurant.

Marriott said the E-Z Stop offers a full breakfast and lunch menu, featuring home-cooked daily specials and home-baked foods.

He said the New York salad has been popular.

“We use a variety of greens, not just plain lettuce, and you can put whatever veggie or deli meat that you want into it,” Marriott said. “We’ll toss it right there and you can choose one of our seven salad dressings.”

He said pizza is their biggest seller.

“It’s a Boston-style pizza, with a tangy, peppy sauce, that’s not too spicy, Jeanne said. “We use a five-blend cheese that makes a less greasy pizza.”

She said the E-Z Stop will be a different type of convenience store, sensitive to the needs of the people in the area and able to serve truckers.

“We’re dedicated to serve the people around us,” Jeanne said. “Local people are the background of our economy.

“Our goal is also to be a full-fledged truck stop, where big rigs can get in and out,” she said.

Jeanne owns Tax Choice in Paris and Tom owns Thomas Richards & Son Logging Contractor, also in Paris.

She said they felt that between all the people he knows in the western Maine area and all the people she has served locally, the convenience store business would be successful.

“We also opened the store so our family could be closer,” Jeanne said. “I have been making weekly trips to see my grandchildren in Dover, N.H. I just wanted the family to be together.”

The E-Z Stop is open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

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