A food service company known for delivering to businesses and restaurants is looking for walk-in customers as it opens two retail stores in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Maines Paper & Food Service Inc. will open stores in the fall at the former Scranton Fabric Center, at Oak Street and Keyser Avenue, and in a former industrial site at Rutter Avenue in Forty Fort.
Selling bulk and fresh food items, janitorial supplies and paper products to institutional customers, restaurants and the general public, Maines will compete with retail stores such as Keyco Distributors Inc., Schiff’s Cash & Carry and, to a lesser extent, Sam’s Club.
The Conklin, N.Y.-based company calls the stores MaineSource and plans to open 20 retail stores in the next five years. Maines Vice President Steve Ross said the stores primarily will serve existing Maines customers between deliveries who need food or supplies immediately, or don’t meet the $500 cutoff for delivery.
“The last thing we want is to have our existing customers go somewhere else,” Mr. Ross said. “This is another level of service, a natural extension of what we already do.”
In all, the store will stock about 6,000 items, but customers can order from 29,000 items offered by Maines for next-day pickup at the store.
The stores will have walk-in coolers for fresh produce, dairy and meats, and a freezer section.
Maines wanted about 10,000 square feet of space in both the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas, said Michael Detter of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate in Scranton, who helped Maines find the sites and negotiate the leases.
The Forty Fort site at 900 Rutter Ave. is 11,000 square feet and had been a meat packing facility, cigar factory and a print shop. The building is owned by Wilkes-Barre businessman David Koral. The MaineSource store is scheduled to open in early October.
The Scranton storefront had been vacant since 2002, when Scranton Fabric Center closed after six years at the plaza owned by Millett Real Estate, Clarks Summit. That store is expected to open in late September. Each store will employ about 10 people, Mr. Ross said.
Maines Paper & Food Service is a privately held, family-owned company with annual revenue in excess of $1.6 billion. Two of its largest customers are Burger King and Wendy’s restaurant chains.
– Courtesy of The Times-Tribune
