The Bethel Shop ‘n Save Foodliner on Main Street. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

BETHEL — On July 17, Joe Christopher, of Scarborough, will be the new owner of the Bethel Foodliner, also colloquially known by its previous name, the  IGA, and soon to be called by its new name, Mainely Provisions.

The Bethel Post Office on Main Street. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

Ben Christopher, age 23, the owner’s nephew will be the new manager. He and his girlfriend recently closed on a home in Newry.

The store will be closed Mon. July 17 and will re-open Fri. July 21 at 7 a.m. “Ideally we wouldn’t want to close down but it is a Hannaford requirement [for IT]. In the meantime we’ll use that time to make some upgrades,” said Christopher.

Christopher and Ryan Rother, who will be the regional manager, were both at the store on Monday morning. Rother manages Mainely Provisions convenience and Mainely Provisions grocery store, both in Kingfield.

The Kingfield store recently started an organic farm with pumpkins, greens, radishes and more. “We’re doing a first run this year. We have a well and we have some greenhouses that are coming,” said Rother. They plan to sell some of that produce along with local farmers’ yield in an expanded produce section in Bethel.

Joe Christopher owns and manages several properties in the state: restaurants, laundromats, and lodging facilities. This is their second grocery store.

“They [the Foodliner staff] have been doing a good job here for awhile so we’re going to continue. We’re going to go in smooth and continue what they are doing and then we’ll make our upgrades, put our stamp on it and lift it up,” said Rother.

They purchased the post office next door, too. There are four apartments on the second floor of that building.

McCabe thank-you

“This  [store] was part of our family. We started out sorting bottles 44 years ago. We were still in high school when they bought it.” said Colleen McCabe, daughter of Carl and Pat Glidden, who owned the Bethel Foodliner (Pat is now deceased).

“They’d put us in the car and bring us up with them.” When school started her parents stayed at a motel, returning home on Saturday nights, to change clothes, then turn around to head back to Bethel.

McCabe and her twin brother Shawn Glidden have always lived almost three hours away in Lebanon coming to Bethel three days a week to work. Their parents eventually moved to York, building a house on the nubble. “My mother took my father for a picnic one day. He said, ‘what are we doing on this piece of property?’ She’d already bought it.” McCabe said her mother taught her to be independent, too.

Of her father, who works one day a week, she said, “he’s just holding on. It’s the end of her, that’s what makes it hard for him [to sell the store].”

“[Bethel has] the nicest people, so down to earth, so meat and potatoes. It’s the nicest store I’ve ever worked in over the years … . First thing in the morning all the senior citizens coming in to talk. On Mollyockett Day (now Summerfest), she said they’d leave a few people in the store to work and the rest of them would jump in a pick up truck to ride in the parade. “We didn’t tell my parents that,” she said.

McCabe’s co-manager, Debbie Swan, of Bethel, a 27-year employee, said the new owners will still use Hannaford’s products and computer system. They follow most of their rules, she said, but because they are independent can veer a bit.

The 40 employees are staying. “we have a good crew,” said Swan. She said the prices will stay the same as Hannaford’s prices, as has always been the case.

“They [the Glidden’s] have done a lot for the town.” she said. “Lots of donations … scholarships …these people are good people. They have been all about the town.”

“They have done so much [for employees]. If they needed a loan, something at home fixed or needed groceries. They are there for them.”

During COVID they opened the store from 7 – 8 a.m. for a “seniors only” hour and made special accommodations for Gould students, too,  many who were from other countries and couldn’t go home. That year town awarded them the Spirit of America Award.

McCabe said she’ll retire to enjoy her husband, grandchildren, and two horses. She said her brother will play on his tractor.

Over the years the Gliddens owned seven small supermarkets. “This is the first and this is the last,”  she said.