TURNER — B & A Variety convenience stores is adding a new store on Route 4 at the end of Twitchells Airport’s main runway. The new store is set to open in November.
The 5,000-square-foot store will offer more services and conveniences than the existing store, which is further to the north on Route 4. Food will be the main emphasis, and there will be space for 40 diners to sit in comfort.
There are no plans for waiters, so patrons will order and pick up their food from the counter. Home-style meals will be available for dining in or taking home. There will be a drive-through for those in a hurry.
The service station will sell Irving products. In addition to the gas pumps under the front canopy, there will be a separate canopy in the rear where two over-the-road semi trucks can fuel simultaneously.
Co-owner Jason Bryant says that he expects to serve many trucks that get off the interstate in Auburn and head north on Route 4.
Bryant expects to add about 15 new employees to staff the new store.
Bryant and his mother, Joan Bryant Deschenes, own the company, which got its start in the post-war era.
Bryant’s uncle, a mechanic, owned an ESSO service station in Turner. Bryant’s father was on his way to the Pacific theater when World War II ended. When his father returned, his parents bought the business and in 1983 added a store.
They moved to their present location in 1988 when the new Route 4 was built.
Deschenes said that in 1988 she was one of the first residents to appear before the Turner Planning Board. “Back then, I was able to handle all of the paperwork myself,” she said. She said that getting all the permits and paperwork was the hardest part of building the new store.
The present B & A Variety will remain open. They said their new store will let them reach additional homeward-bound residents who now turn off Route 4 before reaching the B & A at the stoplight in Turner.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
