Staff Writer
Aroostook Republican Photo/Debra WalshFrom his loft office, Louis St. Amant can see most of Miller’s Discount Department Store. After almost exactly 30 years of service at the store, St. Amant will semi-retire on Dec. 31 of this year.
But, St. Amant, manager of Miller’s Discount Store plans to step down when he enters semi-retirement in early January. Under his management, the store has survived the storms of the closing of Loring Air Force Base and the opening of the Aroostook Centre Mall and Wal-Mart in neighboring Presque Isle.
Through it all, the store has remained competitive and has expanded in some departments.
“We’ve always strived to offer the best price possible,” said St. Amant during a recent interview in his loft office. “We keep a variety of merchandise and bring more name brand items at competitive prices.”
The goal of the store, from years back, has been to “provide for the customer, provide a deal for the customer,” said St. Amant. “We’re there to serve them.”
A native of Madawaska and graduate of the University of Maine at Fort Kent, St. Amant got involved in retail when he moved to Lawrence, Mass., in the late 1960s and worked at Grant City, a former nationally known department chain. But it wasn’t long before he moved back to Maine to manage the Mill Outlet store, Miller’s former name, in Madawaska.
A few years later he transferred within the company to a store in Bellows Falls, Vt., called Danny’s Discount. He also did a short stint as an assistant manager trainee for Kmart in New York. But in 1978, an offer came to manage Millers in Caribou.
St. Amant started work on Jan. 2, 1978. Thirty years later to the day, St. Amant and his wife, Phyllis, will head for Florida to start semi-retirement. The couple plan to stay active in buying merchandise for Miller’s stores in Caribou, Fort Kent, Millinocket and Brewer. St. Amant will spend the summer months in Caribou helping out in the merchandising arena. This arrangement will continue for a few years until St. Amant enters full retirement, he said.
“We will miss him a lot,” said Russ Vickery, vice president of W.S. Emerson, Co. in Brewer, the parent company of Millers. “He and Phyllis are a great husband and wife team.”
Vickery said that he is “very happy” for the couple. “It’s something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”
The Caribou store employs about 20 full- and part-time employees. The new manager is Michael Voisine, who now manages the Fort Kent store and will add the Caribou store to his list of responsibilities. Vickery said that he is “optimistic” about the arrangement.
Throughout the years, St. Amant has seen many changes in the retail business. At Miller’s, one of the biggest changes was the shift to allow the local manager to choose the merchandise sold in the store.
Phyllis St. Amant, who started in the store as a cashier and worked in the Women’s Department, also was active in choosing merchandise for that area.
It made more sense for the buying to be done locally rather than by a remote home office choosing what the store in northern Maine should sell, St. Amant said.
“We know what our customers want,” the manager said.
St. Amant makes buying trips through the year, including annual visits large merchandising shows in Las Vegas to select gifts items and toys for the store.
When Loring AFB closed, there was talk about scaling down the store.
“We knew it was going to be temporary,” St. Amant said. “It would bounce back.”
Then the Ames Department store closed in Caribou, leaving Miller’s the only large retail shopping facility in the community.
The mall in Presque Isle opening, along with Wal-Mart further forced the store to become more competitive, St. Amant said. The inventory had to be closely monitored against the level of business coming through the door, the manager explained.
Canadian trade also has fluctuated with the value of the Canadian dollar. When the exchange was high, St. Amant said, the Canadians weren’t coming to shop as often. Now with the two countries’ dollars closer in value, neighbors from across the border are flooding the store, St. Amant said.
The manager also has been the voice of Miller’s, doing the audio for broadcast commercials on local radio and television stations. St. Amant got his start in broadcasting in the St. John Valley, where he was a DJ for WSJR. He tells the humorous story about how he was a hired as a result of the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
At that time, the radio station did not have its own news program and the current DJ was ordered to pirate another station’s news broadcast, an illegal act. The DJ refused and was fired. Another DJ received the same order and was fired.
As a result, St. Amant and his friend were hired. However, they weren’t ordered to hijack any news broadcasts since the furor surrounding the assassination had receded.
As St. Amant prepares to make a change in his location and climate, he said that he has enjoyed his work in the Caribou store, but appears glad to keep involved in the business in some fashion.
“It’s been very challenging, but enjoyable,” he said. “I’m going to miss it, but I’ll be doing it partially for the next few years until full retirement.”
