This week, the Low family opened their new store on Route 22 in Buxton, replacing the original one that served for more than three decades.
The original store, opened by Dave and Carol Low in 1974 near Bonny Eagle middle and high schools, was to be torn down on Tuesday. The owners said the building had strong family ties. “Our daughter and son grew up there,” said Carol Low.
The couple’s son and daughter-in-law, Eric and Barbara Low, took over the family business in the 1980s. They also have stores in Bar Mills, which opened in 1990, and Alfred, which opened this year. Janet Low, the daughter of the founders, works in the Bar Mills store.
Eric and Barbara Low, who live in Hollis, opened their new building on Route 22 for Low’s Variety on Monday, as a replacement for the original. Dave and Carol Low traveled from their winter home in Florida for the occasion.
Carol Low is pleased with the new building, but was sad Monday at the thought that their former store would be razed. Her granddaughter shared the nostalgia.
Kristen Low, a junior at Bonny Eagle High School, joked that she was born in a backroom at the old store. “I miss the old one,” she said Monday as she made sandwiches in the new store.
Workers were still busy inside the new store Monday afternoon while customers came in. Telephone workers were there all day. Outside, a construction foreman from Risbara Bros. Construction Company, which built the store, directed traffic while a lineman worked on wires from a bucket above Route 22.
When school let out, Bonny Eagle students streamed in. Some customers are descended from the Lows’ first customers more than 30 years ago. “We’re out in the woods, you get a customer you’ve got to keep them,” Dave Low said.
The new store is equipped with a walk-in freezer, a big cooler for beverages, a kitchen and a preparation room where they make pizzas. Offices and storage will be located in a full basement.
Cathy Burns of Limington has worked for Low’s variety for 18 years. “This is beautiful, fantastic. Its bigger and better,” Burns said about the new store.
Burns does all the buying in addition to making an average of 100 pizzas daily that are trucked to the schools in the Bonny Eagle District. Her day begins at 5 a.m. “I come in and get the pizzas started,” she said. ‘They love Low’s pizzas.”
For the Low’s, employees are part of their family. Their three locations have a total of 25 employees. Several have worked for Low’s more than 15 years and eight have worked for the family more than 10 years.
One employee, Margie MacDougall, has been with them 21 years and her husband also works for the store. “We tell her that she’s the Colonel Sanders of Low’s,” Barbara Low said.
Low’s variety is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In honor of their opening day in their new store, Barbara and Eric Low received flowers from members of the community. Both Low’s have roots in the community, having both graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in 1979. But the couple didn’t meet until they were sophomores at the University of Southern Maine.
Barbara Low also serves as vice chairman of the Board of Directors at the Sanford Institution of Savings.
(Low’s opens 1) – Celebrating the opening of the new Low’s Variety are, left to right, employee Cathy Burns, founders Dave and Carol Low, and their daughter-in-law, Barbara Low.
(Low’s store 1) – A new Low’s Variety Store opens Monday, replacing the original on Route 22 in Buxton
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