Enfield Center
They were fresh out, he was told, but that didn’t stop him stopping at the back of the store to joke with employees, who all knew him by name.
“It’s sort of like the Dan & Whit’s of Enfield,” Merrill, a regular, said of the store. “Everyone always smiles here. It’s a good place for a pick-me-up if your day’s not going well.”
Over the Proctor family’s nearly 70-year ownership of the store on Route 4A, they’ve cultivated a following of neighbors like Merrill who rely on their friendly employees and selections of fresh foods and staples.
It’s a legacy the Proctors hope to pass on as they prepare to sell the family business to a new generation of owners.
“You’ve got to plan ahead,” said Janet Proctor, who owns the store with her husband, Jim Proctor.
Both are looking to retire but still want the business to be successful and a community asset, Janet Proctor said. That’s why they plan to stay on board, at least for a short while, as new owners Bill and Emily Henry take the reins in the coming weeks.
“We think we have a win-win-win, if everything works out well,” Janet Proctor said. “So far things look good.”
The Henrys recently moved from the Midwest to the apartment above the store. They not entirely newcomers, though. Bill Henry, an Enfield native, has known the Proctors his whole life and worked at the store some 20 years ago while he was in college.
“To be honest with you, I’d like to keep it exactly the way it is,” Henry said of the store on Monday. “Jimmy (Proctor) brought a really good following and we’re looking to continue it as is.”
Henry said the sale has been discussed for nearly a year; first as a joke, but then more seriously as his family considered moving to the Upper Valley. He wants to continue its history as a family-owned business, with hopes his son might someday take over.
The sale itself will take place either this week or next for an undisclosed amount, Janet Proctor said. The two-story, 2,500-square-foot building was last valued at $325,400, according city assessing records.
The store’s sale will mark the first time since shortly after World War II that the building has been owned by someone outside of Jim Proctor’s family. Although the store itself dates back to 1889, Proctor’s mother purchased the business after serving as a nurse in the Pacific theater. She ran it with her mother, calling the business Wilson and Hubbard’s Center Store.
When Jim’s father, Warren Proctor, married into the family in 1950, the name changed to Proctor’s General Store.
“He grew up in the store,” Janet Proctor said of her husband. “We have pictures of him in a playpen on the front porch.”
Jim Proctor described his father as “old school,” selling dry goods along with convenience and grocery store items. Warren Proctor, who supplied hunting goods, also loaned hunters money during the offseason while storing their guns as collateral.
Jim Proctor said he began working in the store in 1976, and purchased it from his father in 1978.
“I felt under a fair amount of pressure to make sure I succeeded,” he said. “It was a lot of years of no vacations, no time off and things like that.”
But the store survived, mainly because it was always willing to change with customers’ needs. Over time, the store updated its game pumps, installed lottery machines and began renting videos while moving away from department store-style items, Proctor said.
“I’ve always tried to change to match what customers want,” he said. “I think as long as you do that, a store can remain viable.”
The store’s status as one of the few on Route 4A, which runs from Lebanon to Andover, N.H., has also drawn clientele, Jim Proctor said.
“The first thing they say is, ‘Can we use your bathroom?’ ” he said with a laugh. “We’re the bathroom for Route 4A.”
A personal touch has been important too, Janet Proctor said, adding they try to sell special, homemade items people can’t find elsewhere. A low rate of employee turnover also means customers know the people who work there, she said.
“If you have a chain of convenience stores, you can’t do that,” she said. “You have a manager that will work for a few years and then go somewhere else.”
That’s partially why Merrill, who owns the neighboring ArtechSki Supply, is in the store at least three times a day, and proclaimed himself Proctor’s biggest fan on Monday.
“I think that might be debatable, though,” Merrill backtracked with a laugh. “Every time I come in here, there’s somebody that I see who’s here every day.”
Enfield resident Doug Smith also visits regularly and has known the Jim Proctor since the 60s’ when he worked as a mechanic in town.
The store’s selection of goods is “fantastic,” Smith said on Monday afternoon, adding that it’s convenient for neighbors to forgo the drive for downtown for goods.
“We love this store. (There are) great people in here and we kind of consider them all our friends,” Smith said. “You feel like you’re family when you shop here.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.