Like dozens of other Maine towns, Bucksport’s main drag for years has been home to just one drive-thru coffee chain: Dunkin’.
Now, another regional business plans to build a drive-thru directly next door, continuing its rapid expansion from southern Maine into the eastern and northern parts of the state.
Aroma Joe’s, a Scarborough-based business that started in the state more than 20 years ago, hopes to open on Main Street selling energy drinks, coffee beverages and baked goods. The town’s planning board approved the project Tuesday night.
The brand has also recently opened two new stores in Bangor, with more now in the process of opening regionally in Brewer, Calais, Holden, Houlton, Lincoln and Old Town.
That’s because franchisees are looking for new ground as southern Maine becomes saturated, according to Erica Tarnowski, Aroma Joe’s director of franchise development. It has one of lowest initial franchise fees among similar businesses, but overall opening costs vary and can be in line with other franchises, according to corporate figures.
As the chain has been rapidly spreading east and north into more rural parts of the state, it is competing in places where another challenger to Dunkin’ dominance, Tim Horton’s, has retreated over the past dozen years. But unlike Tim Horton’s or Dunkin’, Aroma Joe’s usually offers only drive-thru business, and is drawing in a younger customer base with something other than coffee: its “Rush” line of brightly-colored energy drinks that feature fruity flavors.
Taylor Gilio, 20, said while working Tuesday behind the register of the Main Street location in Bangor that she wanted the job in part because of how much she likes Rush drinks.
“That’s what brought me here,” she said.
Gilio came in often to get them, she said, and staff remembered her and her order; she was surprised by the feeling of community.
Now, regulars come in and catch up with the staff. Most of the people she works with are her age or younger.
Franchise owners and even customers repeated words such as “happiness” and “friendliness” when asked what draws them to the business. They also said it is better to have face-to-face interactions through the drive-thru window without having to talk to a “metal box.”
Customers are willing to drive long distances to get to the nearest Aroma Joe’s just to order their favorite energy drink, they said.
One Bangor customer, 21-year-old Brad Bragdon, said Tuesday he started going to Aroma Joe’s regularly as a teenager in Ellsworth. Now a student at Husson University, he likes the community feeling in the store and enjoys seeing people he knew in high school there.
His go-to order is the Blue Pixie Stick, made with a combination of Blue Curacao, Blue Raspberry and Blueberry flavor syrups reminiscent of the powdered candy. A wall of Torani brand syrups at the store can be combined into different drinks or choices from what the company’s social media fans call its “secret menu.”
When the first Bangor store opened this spring in a former Tim Horton’s, it saw record-breaking sales, so the company started looking at where it would go next, according to Tarnowski.
Northern and eastern Maine wasn’t its “primary target,” she said, and New England isn’t typically popular with national chains, or vice versa.
“It’s really hard for outsiders to break into New England, just because of how we are,” she said.
But Aroma Joe’s is based in Maine, and local franchisees are now looking for more markets in the state as southern areas become saturated, though finding real estate can be challenging in small towns with old building stock.
“We know there’s a population up there that wants to be served, that needs to be served,” she said.
Earlier in the 2000s, Canadian-based Tim Horton’s also expanded throughout the state. But over the past dozen years, it has since retreated, closing 14 stores in Maine between 2013 and 2019, including locations Bangor, Ellsworth, Newport, Old Town and Rockland, among others.
Mark Breton and Gwendolyn Hudson, who plan to break ground this spring on the drive-thru in Bucksport, said they were introduced to Aroma Joe’s by their children, who are in their young 20s. The location will be their first franchise with the company.
While they’re not big energy drink consumers themselves, the Rockport couple knows the products are appealing.
“This is what everybody wants to drink,” Hudson said.
Franchisee Bob Brennan, who owns the two Bangor locations along with four others in Maine and more in New Hampshire, also sees energy drinks as the clear “next wave” in caffeine sales to young people.
He’s in the process of opening three more stores in Florida and has plans for others soon in Brewer and Hampden.
“We’re bringing this happiness to all four corners of Maine,” Brennan said.