A Look Back: One small business owner departs
It was the fall of 2014 and the economy wasn’t so rosy. A Freeport manufacturer and retailer, Lincoln Canoe and Kayak, packed up the moving van and left for Amesbury, Mass. The owner told Mainebiz at the time it was a matter of survival. Foot-traffic at the store was way down and the rent was too expensive.
“It’s very important that our customers know we’re not giving up on them,” the owner, Mark Bourgoin, said at the time. “It’s just, economically, we have to move. We can’t afford it.” Lincoln moved to a space where it could share facilities with a company making related products, Speedboard USA, a manufacturer of standup paddleboards. “We’re sorry it’s come to this,” Bourgoin said. “But in a real sense it was either shut this thing down or take a critical look at moving — and the reality is, our season is so short in Maine, the customer base we were drawing from was very limited.”
Fun fact: Five years ago, in the Nov. 3, 2014, issue of Mainebiz, various stories reported that the state unemployment rate was 5.8% and the median home price was $175,000. As of September of this year, the unemployment rate is 2.9% and the median home price is $288,750.
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I wonder how Lincoln is doing these days?
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