Route 26 store owner keeps it simple
Cathy Oleson opened the Cozy Cat Country Store on July 5
in the old Kwik Stop building.
OXFORD
Chips, dips, candy, soda, gum.
Need more?
How about breakfast sandwiches, Advil, scratch tickets, flints, baked beans, hot dogs, newspapers, motor oil and corn cob pipes?
Yep, at the Cozy Cat Country Store on Route 26 there’s even gasoline, ice cream and a bottle redemption center.
So, you can buy a drink, empty it and get your deposit back instantly. And as long as you have a coupon from one of the two local newspapers, you’ll make an extra penny and get 6 cents on your return.
Now, that’s service; and that’s the way new owner Cathy Oleson likes it.
“We want to be a mom and pop county store,” Oleson said. “I want to go back to basics. If people want something, tell us, we’ll carry it.”
Oleson staged the grand opening on July 5 and she lowered gas prices and gave away prizes. She said the community response was great and she has been kept busy ever since.
The Cozy Cat is the old Kwik Stop. Oleson, whose house and family is in Ellsworth, said she had been driving by the store for some time while taking a one-day-a-week business class in Norway.
She inquired, signed a lease and worked nearly a month to get the store up to her standards.
She and her husband, Bruce, own Oleson Cleaning Service in Ellsworth. She said Bruce was recently in an accident that left him disabled and she wanted to start another business.
She said she leaves Oxford on Sunday afternoon for Ellsworth to do the contract cleaning for her business and then leaves Ellsworth on Tuesday afternoon for Oxford.
“I get down here in time to close,” she said.
Oleson said she had some experience in the retail business as she helped a friend in Trenton run a convenience store in the daytime.
She stays busy and said she has contemplated moving to Oxford Hills, but her children enjoy Ellsworth. She has six children, three who are foster children that she considers her kids.
The store has gone through changes since she took over. She put knotty pine on the walls, buffed up the floors and on Thursday had the carpet ready to install near the kitchen.
She said she has had to learn everything about a convenience store in a quick time. So far, she’s had to paint and bang nails and redesign the interior.
Now, the only food served is breakfast sandwiches, but she said subs and pizzas would be served in a month or so.
“I need a couple of heavy guys to get my pizza oven over here,” Oleson said. “I just bought it from the bowling alley in Paris.”
She said her license allows her to set up for 10 people.
On Wednesday, she opened a redemption center and encourages people to bring bottles in at any time, even though the attendant is on duty from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and weekends, except on nights when there is racing at the Oxford Plains Speedway. The store stays open until midnight on race nights.
Oleson said she is determined to make a living from the store.
“I’m just trying to make a living,” she said.
jsmedley@sunjournal.com
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