CALAIS, Maine — The Paradis Shop ’n Save in Calais will be getting an interior makeover as it becomes a Tradewinds Shop ’n Save.
The owners of Tradewinds Marketplace, based out of Blue Hill, announced last week they had reached an agreement to buy the Calais supermarket, taking over as of Jan. 1, 2016. The store will continue to operate under Paradis management until then, according to Chuck Lawrence, who owns and operates the Tradewinds chain with his wife, Belinda, and three sons.
Tradewinds will redo the interior of the store in Tradewinds colors, which are dark brown and eggshell white with maroon and teal, and add its ship’s wheel logos, said Lawrence.
The renovations, he said, should take about six weeks and the store, located at 361 South St., will remain open.
“There will be no interruption in service,” Lawrence said.
The exterior of the store will remain unchanged except for a Tradewinds sign, Lawrence said. It is Tradewinds 10th store in Eastern Maine.
Tradewinds may make some staffing changes but exactly what those will be have not been determined. Lawrence said he is “not anticipating” major layoffs.
Hannaford Supermarkets purchased the 32,000-square-foot store, along with stores in Houlton and Caribou, in December 2014 from the Paradis family. The firm never intended to run the Calais store as a Hannaford, said Eric Blom, Hannaford spokesman. Hannaford allowed the Paradis family to continue running the business as a Shop ’n Save under a licensing agreement.
“From day one,” Hannaford was looking for a buyer, Blom said.
Hannaford did not remodel the store after purchasing it, he said.
Lawrence said the new Tradewinds plans to expand on the current supermarket’s standard store offerings.
“We can offer more of a selection,” he said.
Because this store is “oversized,” Tradewinds plans to fill a couple of aisles with $1 merchandise in order to compete with other local stores and offer what residents want and need, he said.
“It will be kind of a dollar store within a store,” he said.