By Suzanne Hodgson

Staff Writer

 A large crowd gathered outside Garden Street Market last Friday evening to watch owner Dan Bowen lock the doors for the very last time.

It was an emotional end to an emotional day.

Across town a little more than 12 hours later, a smaller crowd gathered to watch the doors of the new Hannaford grocery store open to the public for the first time.

Kennebunk residents said goodbye in different ways to Garden Street Market.

At Brick Store Museum on Main Street, a display of memorabilia from the market included the store’s familiar green work shirt and a brief history of the market. A history informed visitors the market was named Garden Street because original owners of the property, Col. Joseph Storer and his wife, Hannah, had a prized flower garden in 1758 where the market now stands.

Employees at the store hugged each other and hugged customers, talked about memories and where they’d work next.

“There’s a lot of emotion, everyone’s right on edge,” owner Dan Bowen said Friday afternoon.

Garden Street carried many Hannaford products, and Bowen said he didn’t want to compete with the large chain that’s opening a store in the former Stop & Shop building.

Hannaford, headquartered in Scarborough and a subsidiary of the Belgian Delhaize Group, announced in December it had purchased he former Stop & Shop building on Route 1 in Kennebunk. The new store, located at the Shops at Long Bank Shopping Center, will feature a butcher shop, produce, local foods, natural and organic foods and a pharmacy.

Jackie Fontaine moved to the area five years ago and has shopped at Garden Street Market ever since.

“I’m sad for the employees and the convenience for the customers, but I hope that it was the right time for the owner to make the decision he had to make,” Fontaine said. “I do love Hannaford produce and baked good and their all- around community involvement.”

Fontaine, who works with the Saco Community Meals Program, said Garden Street Market donated food every two weeks to the program and Hannaford will do the same.

Stevie Westmoreland also stopped at the store to pick up a few items she carried in her Garden Street Market canvas shopping bag.

“It’s the last time I’ll use it,” Westmoreland said. She’s been shopping in the same building for the last 32 years.

“I used to live around the corner and walk (to the store) with babies who are now grown up.”

Judy Seguin stopped at the store as she always does, three times a day, every day, for the last 28 years.

“Like everyone else in town, we’re devastated,” Seguin said. She will now shop at Hannaford, because many of the same employees will work there, she said.

“If the crew (from Garden Street Market) were not (working at Hannaford), I’d go someplace else and do regular shopping once a week,” Seguin said. “You feel like a person when you come in.  They’re helpful, like a big happy family. It’s a sad day.”

Nicole and Joseph Trifaro were the first in the line at Hannaford and were excited to see the new store. 

At 6:30 a.m. the two huddled just below rain pouring from Hannaford’s new roof.

“It’s the first opening of the Hannaford and I like Hannaford,” Nicole Trifaro said. She brought the couple’s weekly shopping list and was ready to pick up plenty of greens, protein and vegetables.

On Saturday morning, June Fantoli spotted one of the many familiar faces of former Garden Street Market employees inside the Hannaford store, and waved.

“I’m curious to see it, it’s the only grocery store in Kennebunk now,” Fantoli said. “I want to see if my friends from Garden Street are here.”

Fantoli said the closing of Garden Street Market has been very sad for her and the community.

“My husband says we’ve been going there for 25 years and he finally found where everything was and now they’re closing,” Fantoli said.

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