Family cuts ribbon on seafood shop

Jim Hartley shows off some of the fare available at his new
 business, Pine Tree Seafood & Produce, located at 655 U.S.
Route 1 in Scarborough.

SCARBOROUGH — On Saturday, Jim Hartley finally cut the ribbon on his big dreams of a small business.

A longtime hotel manager from Sommerville, N.H., Hartley wanted to be his own boss in a mom-and-pop shop of some kind, where he could control his own destiny by opening his own door every morning, donning an apron and serving some public need. What he wanted most, he said, was a business his young children could grow up in, rather than simply watching their father go off to work each day.

Going back to his roots growing up on a dairy farm in the central Maine town of Corinna, Hartley settled on a produce stand, zeroing in on a seafood component when Scarborough struck him as the prefect mix of small-town charm and big-volume traffic.

After opening his doors Aug. 30, Hartley cut the ribbon on Pine Tree Seafood & Produce at 655 U.S. Route 1 Saturday, to make it official.

“Small business is the fabric of America,” said Hartley. “I really think we’d be in a much better place if we did not have so many big corporations. I wanted to have my own business where I have the responsibility and the risk, to take care of my own family.”

“It’s a huge challenge,” said Hartley’s father-in-law and business partner, Dick Whitmore, retired from a 40-year career coaching men's basketball at Colby College. “We hope to supply a product that’s not only a great product, but one where people will come back for more.”

So, far, says Hartley, that’s been the case.

“We’re committed to supporting Maine farms, fishermen and artisans, dealing only with Maine-based companies that keep their profits in the state of Maine,” said Hartley. “So far, the neighborhood has been tremendously supporting.”

Because of that, Hartley’s store already has begun to evolve, offering not just the core product – Maine lobsters from the Pine Point Fisherman Co-op, live or cooked to order – along with local farm produce and fresh seafood. Hartley has begun to branch out to become even more of a specialty corner store, stocking wine, pasta, oils, spices and specialty breads, the latter from Standard Baking Co. in Portland.

Starting this week, the store has gone seasonal, filling pre-orders of fresh birds from The Turkey Farm in New Sharon, as well as Christmas Trees ranging from three to 12 feet in height, supplied by the Wonderland Christmas Farm in Corinth and The Christmas Tree Ranch in Amherst.

“The store continues to evolve,” said Hartley, “but won’t change is that this is a family-run business first, focused on local product sourcing.”