FALMOUTH — What has been a family business will stay that way, just with a new family at the helm.

MaryBeth Bachman, a school nurse at Falmouth High School, purchased the iconic Town Landing Market on March 31. Bachman will run the store with her daughter, Sara, and two business partners: her brother Arthur Curran, and accountant Dan McCarthy. She said virtually all the staff will be staying on.

“The idea is to keep the old-time feel, but update some of the products,” Bachman said this week.

She said she had always wanted to own a store like the market at 269 Foreside Road.

Eventually, she said, “I stopped at the register and asked (former owner Dan Groves) if he’d want to sell.”

That was almost two years ago. Since then, Bachman and Groves stayed in touch, and Bachman even worked at the store last summer to get a sense of how it operates. She and has taken classes at the Maine Small Business Development Center.

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“I think we’ll be able to make a good team, I’m looking forward to it,” Bachman said of the new family business.

Sara Bachman, who will be the general manager of the market, said they hope to integrate more locally sourced food.

“We’re excited about involving more local farmers and small businesses,” she said.

MaryBeth Bachman said while they want to make some minor changes, like expanding breakfast to include bagel sandwiches and bringing back scooped ice cream, they also intend to preserve the market’s history.

“We’ll be expanding the menu a bit, but we’ll definitely be keeping all the classics,” Sara Bachman said.

MaryBeth Bachman said she intends to set up a box where customers can write down their favorite memories and stories of the market through the years, in hopes of putting those stories into a book.

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“It’s amazing the memories people have of this place,” Bachman said.

The Bachmans and McCarthy said acquisition of the market and the transition to new ownership have gone well, and while regular customers admittedly are missing the former owners, they are also excited for what the future holds.

“There are a lot of suggestions out there and we’re excited to hear them,” Sara Bachman said.

McCarthy, a New York-based accountant who intends to spend time in Maine, said it was nice to see “alumni” keep coming in the store, and said this job is about “connecting with the community.”

“Dan (Groves) probably could have sold the market to a corporation, but he wanted to maintain the small-town feel,” McCarthy said.

MaryBeth Bachman said she also hopes to have a website where people could place orders for pickup, which would be useful for boaters.

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She said she doesn’t anticipate any major visual changes inside the market, given the building’s overall footprint, but she said they do hope to expand the kitchen at some point.

“The front will stay the same, but we would like to have bigger ovens and a bigger kitchen,” Bachman said. “Maybe we’ll cheer it up a bit.”

She said they are planning to close the market for two weeks next February for interior work like painting and perhaps reflooring, but people coming in “will still know it’s Town Market Landing.”

“As we get more information and get our feet wet, there might be more changes I didn’t anticipate,” Bachman admitted.

In the meantime, though, things will remain business as usual at Town Landing, while the Bachmans and McCarthy work to build relationships with local farmers.

Colin Ellis can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 123 or cellis@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @colinoellis.

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MaryBeth Bachman, left, is the new owner of Town Landing Market in Falmouth. With her are daughter Sara Bachman and business partner Dan McCarthy. Bachman said she intends to preserve the atmosphere of the market while updating some products.


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