Familiar looking CBS entrepreneur calls it a day at Stop and Save
By Chad Feehan
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
December 8, 2023 Edition
Stop and Save owner Roger Powers as he looked in an Atlantic Lottery promotion back in 1995. His customers will tell you he looks slightly different now.
For over 30 years, Stop and Save in Long Pond, CBS has been the place to go for the odds and ends, and bits and bobbles you need at the last minute to complete a meal, or have a time. Whether it’s the bag of savoury or breadcrumbs you forgot to pick up at the supermarket, or new flights for a set of darts, chances are Roger Powers and the crew at Stop and Save stocked it.
Last week, Powers, now 74, finalized the sale of the store, making for a bittersweet transition from a place where he and his wife Glenys and employees have spent more waking hours than can probably be counted.
The store will continue to operate on the corner of the CBS Highway and Searles Place under new ownership by a family that already has a foot in the convenience store business given they operate two shops in the Marie’s chain.
Powers had a career already established with retailer Canadian Tire when in 1993, after 22 years with the company, he decided to make a go of things on his own by taking on Stop and Save.
In 2003, Powers constructed a new, more modern building, just meters away and shifted operations there.
Even though Glenys has never considered herself an employee of the store, she’s been helping out in various capacities since day one, including clerical work and a brief stint as a baker.
She allowed that taking on the store was daunting at first.
“It was crazy,” she said. “Neither one of us had any experience, especially not me… but from that day on we did wonderful.”
“We had a good run out of it,” Powers agreed. “Everyone on the Shore pretty well came to the store.”
Aside from selling nearly everything under the sun, Powers attributes the success of the shop to how they treated their customers, from the welcoming environment of the store to their willingness to go out of their way to help people.
“A nice environment and friendly staff always brings customers back,” Powers said.
Long-time store manager Joy Green, whom Glenys describes as “the face of the store” knew the regulars well enough to get their orders ready before they could even ask. In Glenys’ point of view, it was Green who ran the show.
Green remembers watching the new location slowly being built, and wheeling stock in shopping carts across the parking lot when it was time to start the move. Eight hours after her last shift in the old store, she was there at seven the next morning with the keys to open the new one.
“I felt like I had won the lottery that morning unlocking the door for the first time,” Green said.
Living just down the road from the store lent a small-town charm to the ways the Powers were able to help a customer. Glenys vividly remembers being summoned to bring a drop of vanilla down from her own pantry to a customer looking to bake a cake. Roger has given nuts, bolts, and paint trays out of his garage to customers who’ve found themselves stranded at the store on a Sunday with nowhere else to get what they needed to finish a job.
“It’s the little things,” Powers said. “I treat all my customers the same; every customer that walks through the door is treated equal.”
Though he doesn’t look anywhere close to 74, Powers believes it’s the right time to step aside, and said he doesn’t feel too guilty about it. He loved the store all the way through and what he’s been able to bring to his customers, but realized about a year ago that he had to make a change.
“It’s just time for me to step down and spend some quality time with my wife,” said Powers. “The years go so fast. It’s unreal, it’s crazy.”
Glenys was surprised when Roger decided to sell the business.
“I never thought you’d ever retire, ever,” she said to her husband. “I thought you’d drop first.”
The pair recognize that change can be difficult, but like things they’ve been through before, even the most drastic of changes will sink in given a little time.
“I was good to my customers and my customers were good to me,” said Powers. “But it’s time to move on.”