David Pike and Bob Craft started bagging groceries and stocking shelves at the Calais IGA when they were 14 years old in the late 1990s.
They worked their way up over the years, and now own the Calais and Orono IGAs. They bought the stores, previously known as Bell’s IGAs, in 2019.
Now, Pike and Craft’s Orono store, located at 6 Stillwater Ave., is one of nine in the world to be honored as an IGA retailer of the year. There are about 6,600 IGAs across the world.
“I had to pinch myself,” Craft said Tuesday. “I didn’t believe it.”
Craft and Pike have done it all during their combined 72 years of experience, from unloading freight and breaking down boxes to stocking shelves. As people checked out at the store on Tuesday, the two owners appeared to know nearly every shopper and greeted them by name.
It is the “most prestigious” honor IGA has, CEO John Ross said while visiting the Orono IGA Tuesday.
“This just blew me and Bob away,” Pike said. “There’s so many stores out there.”
Ross and senior vice president Doug Fritsch toured the Orono store, met employees and long-time customers before making the drive to Calais. There they will meet employees who trained Craft and Pike when they were teenagers.
Craft and Pike support the community through things like donating water to youth sports leagues and offering discounts for veterans, senior citizens and college students.
“We’re super proud of these family businesses,” Ross said.
While the award is specifically for the Orono store, the Calais store deserves the recognition too, Craft and Pike said. Roughly 160 people are employed between the two stores, with some employees having worked there for decades.
The Orono store doesn’t have space for large product displays, but the owners make every inch of the store work to fit the products people need, Craft said.
“We try to have everything that everybody needs, the everyday items,” Craft said. “We have a lot of specialty items in here that our customers tell us that they can’t get anywhere else.”
Craft and Pike will travel to Las Vegas where they will be recognized at the IGA Awards of Excellence Ceremony on Feb. 24 and will compete to win IGA USA International Retailer of the Year.
“We’ve already won, just to get nominated,” Craft said. “We’ve already won in my mind. It’s our employees that have made this happen.”
