05/24/2022
To the Goldthwaite’s Community (The Store),
We’re so excited to re-introduce ourselves as the new managers of Goldthwaite’s Pool Lobster. Many of you already know us as the smiling girls behind the counter, laughing and spending all of our summer hours at the store. We extend our thanks to everybody who has given us support over the years and share our enthusiasm with everyone who pays us a visit. We wanted to give you the opportunity to get to know us a bit more before the summer truly begins and give you some insight into who we are, and how special Goldthwaite’s has been to us throughout the years.
In addition to getting to know us through this letter, we want to extend the invitation for anyone to feel free to come to Goldthwaite’s and introduce themselves to us as the summer ensues. We always want to take advantage of getting to know the growing community around us. You know where to find us!
Bailey Heffernan:
I’m a Biddeford local and grew up spending my summer afternoons in Biddeford Pool long before I spent them behind the counter at GPL. Now, I can’t imagine my summers without onion rings and early mornings brewing blueberry coffee. I started at The Store in 2015, washing dishes and peeling potatoes after my best friend Meg got me a job. At 15, I had no idea the impact this business would have on me and the role it would play in my future.
In the off-seasons, I attended the University of Maine as a nursing major, but soon transferred to the Maine Business School and graduated in 2021 with a degree in Small Business Management with a focus on International Studies and a minor in Anthropology. This transfer was instigated by my summer job, as I realized how much I enjoyed learning the psychology of consumerism while stocking the retail coolers and quickly began appreciating the intricacies of running a business in a way I never felt about administering meds or reading blood pressures. I would end up at The Store on my days off, daydreaming about having a restaurant of my own, and began watching my savvy future mentors, Beth and Ada, closely, trying to take in as much as I could about this small business that I had grown so fond of.
Seven years later I am thrilled to be able to run a business that I am genuinely proud to be a part of. The community that surrounds GPL is unlike any I’ve ever seen, and the support and kindness I have received with this announcement have been deeply empowering. I’ve enjoyed scanning your groceries, cooking your lobsters, and chatting with you all for the past 7 years and I am delighted that I can continue to grow with the business I know best. I hope to share my enthusiasm and pride with you for the seasons to come and to carry out the tradition that F.O. Goldthwaite’s is for many families near and far. See you this summer!
Meg Friel:
I grew up just outside of Biddeford Pool, spending my summers biking down to the Big Beach with friends, rock jumping at East Point, and skipping rocks at the gut. My grandparents, Doris and Hugh Hennedy, first came to Biddeford Pool in the late 50’s when it was still “just a fishing town.” There, they raised their four children, including my mother Liz, who always instilled in me the importance of our small but significant community. Long before I worked at Goldthwaite’s, I would walk over to the store from the beach, sweaty and sunburnt, with my friends to buy a quart of fries or, if we were really lucky, some fried dough. Goldthwaite’s was my first job at 15 years old when my sister encouraged me to apply to work alongside her as a dishwasher. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that eight years later, I’d be fortunate enough to run this business with my best friend.
I ventured out of Maine as a freshman in college to attend Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. At Saint Mike’s, I majored in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts and minored in political science. In the summers, I’d always find myself coming back to The Store, drawn in by the familiar faces of the Biddeford Pool community I looked forward to seeing each season. It was the summer going into my senior year of college that Beth and Ada asked me and Bailey if we’d be interested in taking over. Almost immediately, we said yes.
When people ask me to tell them about my job, I always say that in all my years of being here, I can’t remember a day that I didn’t want to come to work. The special place in my heart that Goldthwaite’s now holds began all those years ago, sharing some of my fondest memories here with my closest family and friends. Each season, I feel favored to be a part of a community as rare as this one, where acts of kindness and unwavering support for those around you come as commonplace. I look forward each year to returning to this community and helping Goldthwaite’s grow while admiring the years of tradition that remain instilled in this extraordinary business. I hope to continue to make Goldthwaite’s a place where families and friends from all over can make their own memories. June 3rd is fast approaching, but until then, I’m counting down the days until the store is once again abuzz with sounds of summer at the Pool. See you all so soon!
We’re excited for the opportunity to be able to continue to provide the service that was always modeled for us at The Store. Beth and Ada have been the best mentors we could ask for, and we can’t wait to carry on that legacy while adding our own twist. Goldthwaite’s has been our “summer job” for the last eight years and has grown to be so much more than that to us. It’s where we found our sense of community, where we fostered small connections that transformed into friendships, and where we have now found our next adventure in our professional lives. For those of you who may not know us, please feel free to ask for Meg or Bay next time you walk through the door – we’d love to get to know you. And for those of you who do, another summer awaits! See you all on June 3rd!
Meg & Bailey
