BOWDOINHAM, Maine — Festive holiday cards bearing the well-wishes of customers frame the door of the Bowdoinham Country Store, and a brightly decorated Christmas tree opposite the cash register, along with his perky 11-year-old daughter at his side, reminds owner David Skelton of the holiday season.
Despite the good cheer of the constant stream of customers, though, Skelton found himself “in a kind of dark place” early last week.
His five-door cooler broke down — a new one will cost $15,000 to $20,000 — and about a month ago the freezer went too, meaning no frozen food. Shelves that used to hold dog food sit empty, with Skelton struggling to pay Central Maine Power or buy staples to sell.
Then four days before Christmas, Skelton made a bad decision to sell liquor to a minor working undercover with the Sheriff’s Department, and Skelton thought — not for the first time — that the Bowdoinham County Store might not make it through.
He wrote on the store’s Facebook page, “I want to say I am sorry … If I have to close my doors and sell off the real estate, please know that I have done everything that I can to keep these doors open for the community. The store has been in the red for the past two years and I am truly tired fighting (exhausted).”
But for the many Bowdoinham residents who find themselves popping in to the store once or twice a day for a newspaper, beer or gummy bears by the pound — that was not an option.
Without even calling Skelton, Melissa Hackett started an online fundraiser, hoping to pull in $5,000 to help Skelton out — and in doing so, help out his customers.
As of Sunday morning, donors had contributed $1,685 in six days, bringing Skelton well on his way to a new freezer.
Uncomfortable accepting help, Skelton said customers handed him $20 bills and one elderly lady wrote him a check for $80.
“I don’t think she can afford that,” Skelton said. “I don’t know quite what to do with it.”
But his customers do: Keep their store open.
Hackett hopes residents will not only see a donation as a way to help Skelton, but themselves as well. It’s 9 miles, or about 12 minutes, to Hannaford in Topsham — time and gas that Bowdoinham resident Gilbert Wildes would rather not spend if he just needs one or two items.
“It would be a pain,” Wildes said Tuesday.
Kate Cutko, who stopped to pick up milk, said she saw the campaign on Facebook and wondered if $5,000 would be enough to keep Skelton going. He said Tuesday it would be more than enough to buy a used freezer.
“For things like this, I’d have to make a trip to Topsham,” Cutko said. “And the hot dogs are my guilty pleasure.”
Skelton bought the store 13 years ago from Marion Bagley, who had run it for about 40 years.
He employs 10 people, including his main meat cutter, who works 36 or 37 hours a week. Then Skelton works an additional 50 to 60 hours — and only recently began drawing a check after his accountant “started screaming at me.”
Shelves near the register are lined with local goods, from pickled beets, bread-and-butter pickles and dilly beans from Bowdoinham’s The Little Canning Co. to local chestnuts from Blaine Fortin on Post Road ($4.99 a pound). And tacked up on every spare wall, blaze-orange posters announce the heaviest deer tagged this year. (“We don’t weigh ‘em, but we tag ‘em,” Skelton said.)
In the back, along with a deli for sandwiches and one little table, Skelton used to carry a full line of bone-in meats — until the meat saw broke and he couldn’t afford to replace it.
Even the smelting has dropped off — and with it, the groups of half-a-dozen smelters dropping in for “30-packs and sandwiches.”
“We’re not turning a profit,” he said. “For at least two years we’ve been in the red, robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
But on Tuesday, Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry offered good news: Neither Skelton nor the other merchants who failed the liquor check on the 21st will be fined for a first offense, and that the department instead will offer training.
But between long talks with family and employees, and the goodwill — and cash — from the fundraiser, Skelton said he’s determined to keep the community cornerstone from crumbling.
“We’ve turned it around to say, ‘We’re going to stay standing,’” he said. “We’ll get through it.”
“I hope that people in the community feel like it’s a worthwhile thing to save,” Hackett said. “I think there’s a big focus in Bowdoinham on buying locally — we even have stickers that say ‘Buy Bowdoinham.’ For a lot of people I think that means supporting farmers and artisans, but I think it means small-business people too, and all the other people in town trying to make a living. That’s the store in town. It’d be nice to see it stay.”