Mill Village store changes owner

The Mill Village General Store was buzzing with activity on Feb. 1. Downstairs, workers were busy taking inventory while upstairs they sorted through storage and planned for the future.

This wasn’t just a regular change in ownership though. The Queens Association for Supported Living, based out of Milton, is now the proud owners of the store.

QASL is a non-profit group that supports people in the community with special needs. They also run three group homes in Liverpool to help clients move to the next step of independence.

Since QASL is not fully funded by the government, they have to find other sources of income. The business side of QASL is Penny Lane, and has several services and products it offers to the community such as creating stands for VanDyk Blueberry juice, provides a paper shredding service and sells bundles of kindling.

Murray Kirkpatrick says QASL started searching for another more ambitious venture for Penny Lane about two years ago. While successful, the business was not in an ideal location. He and the board knew they wanted something more visible, and able to draw in more traffic. He describes the moment it dawned on him to take over the store as his “eureka moment.” “I kept driving by the store (up for sale) everyday, and then it hit me on the head.”

Kirkpatrick says the whole process, from first enquiring about the building to the final transfer of ownership, was smooth sailing

The Dept. of Community Services helped with seed money to purchase it, but the business will be completely self-supporting from now on.

There are lots of plans in the works for the store, and one of the big ones is to make it very local focused.

The store will soon be on the lookout for part-time store clerks, and the hope is people from the Eastern Queens will be interested. “Our goal is to service the community and keep the store as a vital part of it,” said Kirkpatrick.

Soon they are hoping to canvass the community, asking how they can serve them better from the products they carry to the hours of operation.

The list of long-term plans is ambitious as well. Some ideas already in the planning stages are to turn it into an old fashioned general store with a gift shop, and add in a delivery service, hiring clients of QASL who are working on their driver’s license. “We’re trying to integrate in a real business people with challenges.”

The store is open for business now, but the hope is to have a grand opening in August once other sections of the store are renovated.

The plan is to sell some of penny lane’s products in the store as well, and they are also looking to incorporate products from other shops around the province.

The store was formerly run by longtime councillor Freeman Evans and his son Ted for 22 years. Freeman past away this past year, and Ted says it was time for him to move into a new venture. Ted says though he’ll drop in from time to time to see how they’re doing though.

QASL has hired Matthew and Polly Mills to manage the new store. The pair with their son settled in Mill Village last year, a convenient short walk across the bridge from the store.

nmoase@theadvance.ca