The effects of the shutdown of Associated Grocers of Maine don’t stop at the border.
A mile across the state line, in rural Wentworth Location, N.H., David Parent holds a $4,500 check from the former Gardiner-based grocers’ cooperative that has turned into worthless paper.
Associated Grocers of Maine was $10.8 million in debt when it went into court-ordered receivership April 27, sparking the instant dismantling of the 57-year-old grocery cooperative.
The real estate was auctioned off last week. The lender, Camden National Corporation, parent company of Camden National Bank, was awarded the property with a bid of $5 million. Camden held a $4.8 million mortgage outstanding on the property.
Parent, owner of Mt. Dustan Country Store & Cabins, said Saturday he had an inkling last winter about the cooperative’s financial difficulties.
“I kind of foreseen what was going on,” Parent said. “They were not treating the little stores like they had in the past. They were not letting us do things they had previously, like buying at certain prices.”
He said many discounting programs were restricted to larger retailers, which ruled him out.
Parent thought that was unfair. “We had to give $2,500 to join just like the other guys,” he said.
So, after a six-year membership, he opted out and asked for his money back in February.
He was to receive his $2,500 initial joining fee plus other money he had there on deposit.
Associated Grocers of Maine was a retailers’ cooperative serving independent supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Part of the cooperative arrangement was that grocers can buy products from Associated Grocers of Maine for which they received a 0.5 percent dividend, deposited in an account.
“They had $4,500 of my money,” Parent said. “They had up to eight weeks to write a check, which they took to the day.
“When I got the check, we had a snowstorm going on, so I sat on the check a few days. Then I went to the bank and it bounced.”
He tried phoning Associated Grocers of Maine.
“Every number that I come across that (the website) tells me to dial is no longer in service,” he said.
The Associated Grocers of Maine business has been dissolved, and calls to attorneys involved in the case were not immediately returned Monday.
And that’s been a recurring problem for Parent. After learning about the auction, he said he will now try to reach officials at Camden National Corporation.
In the meantime, he’s turned to Capital Candy Co., wholesalers of Barre, Vt., to keep his shelves stocked. But he says he needs more variety.
Among his options is another cooperative, Associated Grocers New England, a Pembroke, N.H.-based retailers’ group which is not affiliated with Associated Grocers of Maine.
“I’m kind of nervous about any AG,” Parent said. “I’m a little store, and you go around taking $4,000- $5,000 out of the kitty, it doesn’t leave much to go join another cooperative.”
He said he originally joined Associated Grocers of Maine because AG New England “wasn’t coming this far north.”
His business, which also houses New Hampshire Guide Service operated by his sons, is near Errol, N.H.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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