Staff Writer

Some aisles are still empty but Dave Cole isn’t nervous – he still has a few days to finish stocking the new Hannaford Bros. store shelves.

Cole, the store’s manager, said the new store in Kennebunk’s Shops at Long Bank will open for business 7 a.m. Saturday.

As the sliding glass doors open for the first time at Hannaford, the doors at Garden St. Market in downtown Kennebunk will close for good.

Cole and Mike Norton, director of corporate communications for Hannaford, said they’ve been working closely with Garden Street Market’s owner, Dan Bowen, to make sure the new store’s location and name are the biggest changes for local shoppers. 

Garden Street Market was an independent satellite store that features Hannaford products.

Nearly half the 140 employees at the new Hannaford store are former Garden Street employees. The rest of the workers come from the Scarborough-based chain’s other stores and local residents hired for the opening.

“We got 300 applications for 50 openings,” Cole said, “95 percent are locals.”

Other similarities between the former and future stores include Stonewall Kitchen products – a top seller at the old grocery store – and senior center deliveries with customers’ names on bags of groceries.

 “That’s how Garden Street did it, that’s how we’re doing it,” Cole said.

Garden Street Market managers also suggested Hannaford use small carts because many seniors favor these over the regular-sized carts.

When Garden Street Market officials in February announced it would close, many senior residents of Kennebunk complained they’d be inconvenienced.

Nancy Hooper, 85, of Kennebunk, said at the time that many of her friends could no longer drive and would have to rely on rides to get to the market.

The new store has added benches throughout at the front of the store so shoppers can take a break.  A large sitting area in the front of the store will serve coffee and features a large, flat-screen TV.

The store also has new child-friendly carts that look like space ships that will keep children closer to the handles, instead of riding lower to the ground as they did in older carts.

Norton said the change will prevent little hands from picking items off shelves without parents seeing.

Other changes to Hannaford’s traditional store layout include integration of organic products onto shelves without a separate “Nature’s Way” section. A new gluten-free section has been added that features products like chips and cookies.

Cole said as the growing season moves forward he’ll talk to farmers in the area who might supply their products to the store. Hannaford already works with Ricker Hill, an orchard in Turner, to supply many of the chain’s apples, and Tom’s of Maine for its toothpaste, along with other local suppliers.

The new store has also tried to give back to the community by way of the Kennebunk Free Library. Cole said the company has donated $4,000 for equipment for a new café in the library and another $1,000 in gift cards from the store to supply the new café with coffee and food.

The store will have a number of grand opening events over the next few weeks.

Kennebunk Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said Hannaford will look for someone to sub-lease the Garden Street store.

“My focus is not to see the store rented out immediately to any big box store,” Tibbetts said.

Tibbetts said he hopes a new tenant, such as a cultural center that would show movies, might improve downtown nightlife and draw pedestrian traffic to the area.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.