Sometimes a career change comes when one sees the handwriting on the wall. For Marty Beattie, this happened in 1989. Vermont farms were going out of business, and he was working for a grain company.
He had invested 15 years in that industry, but he knew he needed to pivot to something with a brighter future. Beattie decided to buy a building in Danville – his hometown – that once had housed an automotive garage. He envisioned turning the little building into a food store. It sat on Route 2, with plenty of traffic passing by.
“He felt the town was in need of a small grocery store at the time,” said Lyndsay Beattie, who is married to Marty and Cathy Beattie’s son James and serves as president of the store, which is called Marty’s 1st Stop.
The store officially opened Feb. 19, 1990, so Marty’s marked 35 years in business this past winter.
Major addition
About a year after opening his Marty’s 1st Stop, Marty put in gas pumps as another draw for customers. The building itself has been added onto four times over the years and currently sits at about 10,000 square feet.
But a big change is coming.
In September, a 10,000-square-foot addition that will give Marty’s shoppers and employees alike a lot more elbow room is expected to get under way.
At the store’s current size, the feeling is that “we’re really too small to be big and too big to be small,” Lyndsay said.
The expansion plan has been in the works for the last two years.
Marty’s primary wholesale partner, Associated Grocers of New England, has been “very involved with our expansion project, assisting in designing the kitchen and store layout,” she said, adding that “AGNE is extremely supportive in all aspects of this business. They assist in day-to-day questions regarding retail, IT support and store development.”
In addition to involving its wholesaler, Marty’s 1st Stop felt it was important to solicit input from shoppers.
“We kept a lot of the customers involved throughout the process,” she said. “And when we had our final design plans come in, we displayed them for the community to see.
“It’ll be better and more convenient for our customers, not only just in our local community, but in surrounding communities. And it will really help the efficiency of the store for our employees as well,” she said.
A large portion of the existing store will turn into kitchen space. Marty’s offers an extensive deli menu, including homemade soups and a lunch special every day.
“We do a lot of fried foods and sandwiches, paninis and pizza,” she said, noting that the store has its own pizza oven. “Our deli will be expanding quite a bit.”
The deli draws store traffic at lunch and dinner. Dinner traffic can sometimes be in the form of entire sports teams unloading from a bus in search of a meal after games.
The already-sizable meat department will move to the addition. Certified Angus Beef and fresh seafood are a couple of its big draws.
Produce also will be given more room in the new space. The Beattie family farm, less than half a mile away from the store, grows vegetables such as corn, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and green beans, with the produce sold at Marty’s 1st Stop.
The revamped store will have a large freezer section; a beer cave will be added; the wine offerings will increase; and dairy will be expanded.
One of the items in the expanded dairy department will be milk from the dairy farm, which is overseen by Lyndsay’s husband, James Beattie.
The Beatties will bottle and pasteurize milk that will be sold under the name McDonald’s Farm Creamery. McDonald was Marty’s mother’s maiden name.
Supported by locals, summer visitors
Though there are a couple of larger grocery stores in St. Johnsbury, which is about seven miles from Danville, “a lot of people stay right here in town” to do their shopping, Lyndsay said. “There are a lot of other local communities surrounding Danville itself, and I really feel they utilize our store rather than go all the way down into St. Johnsbury.”
To show appreciation for its customers, Marty’s 1st Stop launched a loyalty program in June 2023. Shoppers can earn rewards and access store coupons when they join, via app or the store’s website, martysvt.com.
Marty’s also supports community events to express its gratefulness.
“We do live in a very close-knit community, with many community events happening throughout the year which we as a business try to support in any way we can,” she added.
The Danville Fair, Autumn on the Green and school-based events are a few of those.
The summer months bring a large influx of visitors to Danville, thanks to its lake – called Joe’s Pond – and Sugar Ridge Campground.
“It makes our store extremely crowded and busy, and so by expanding, we’re hoping it’ll be more convenient for the locals as well during the summer months,” Lyndsay added. “I’m excited, but I’m hoping that the community is also looking forward to it and hopefully benefits them.”
Strong, steady staff
Lyndsay, who is going into her fourth year of running Marty’s 1st Stop, is assisted by a strong staff of 40, some of whom have worked for Marty’s for many years.
The store expansion is expected to open up 10 additional jobs, she said. It’s also going to make life a bit easier for Marty’s cashiers. The new checkouts will have conveyor belts, and self-checkouts will be added.
“We have three checkouts currently, which is just is not enough for us; there’s always a line. Although my cashiers are extremely efficient … when someone comes with a big cart, we don’t have belts like a grocery store.”
With the expansion, “we will be set up with better checkout lanes, and we will have two self-checkouts for customers that would choose to do that option.”
The self-checkout option is preferred by some customers, “but we also still want to make sure there’s a face, because we are a small community, and we do want to make sure we’re greeting our customers and serving the customers that want to talk to an actual person.”
The store’s staff includes high school and college students who sometimes work for a while, leave for a sports season and then return. Or they work weeknights, weekends and in the summer.
“I have several college kids coming back next week to work for the summer,” Lyndsay said in early May. “It’s always fun to see them again, growing up.”
Family members also help out when needed. Marty Beattie, one of 14 kids, has several of his siblings and their families who live in the Danville area.
“Lots of family in and out [that] help,” Lyndsay said. “So it’s really a big family business.”
Jacob Mills, Marty’s nephew, is in charge of the produce farm that yields vegetables for the store to sell.
Plynn Beattie, Marty’s son, is a “big asset” in the meat department, Lyndsay said.
Lyndsay’s 15-year-old daughter Maddison works in the deli.
Her 11-year-old daughter, Isla, will most likely work with her dad James on the family dairy farm, not in the store.
“She is my farm kid,” Lyndsay said. “She will never be down [at the store] unless she’s hungry.”
Ownership moving to second gen
The ownership succession from Marty and Cathy Beattie to Lyndsay and James Beattie began in April 2022. Marty had been thinking it was time to retire, and Lyndsay had been thinking she’d like a little more flexibility in her schedule, with two daughters involved in extracurricular activities and James running the sixth-generation dairy farm passed down through Marty’s family.
Lyndsay had been working as a physical therapy assistant, having trained in exercise science. But she had also studied accounting in college. That has proven to be invaluable in her new vocation, as she keeps the books for the store.
But that’s far from all she does. She handles human resources, payroll, scheduling, ordering specialty items and “fixing the gas pumps,” she said, having had to deal with a pump issue just prior to her call with The Griffin Report. “And I cover shifts when people call out. So I have a lot of hats.” The store manager oversees the grocery department, which helps her workload.
James continues to be a full-time dairy farmer but is called in for handyman duty as needed, Lyndsay said. Those calls used to go to Marty, but his role now is more at-will.
“He likes to come in in the morning. He’s been doing it for 35 years, so it’s been hard for him not to,” Lyndsay said. “He likes to help out with the cashing up in the morning and the books, and I still have to get a lot of advice from him.
“He also does love to cook, so he’s in here cooking different things and preparing salad,” she added. “He’s still involved quite a bit.”
The first- and second-generation couples continue to jointly own the store while the succession plan plays out.
“The store is a corporation, and James and I own shares of the corporation,” Lyndsay explained. “This transition will happen over many years.”
The four are all officers of the corporation.
Lyndsay says she is glad to have the opportunity to run Marty’s 1st Stop and keep it in the family.
“I just feel very fortunate that James and I have been able to kind of fill the role of the new owners. It’s been fun, and there has been a lot of learning, and it’s frustrating at times. But overall, it’s been really rewarding, and I’ve been able to have a little bit more of a flexible schedule at times with my kids, driving them to and from everything they need to do.”
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Great article. Congrats to the Beattie family and all those involved. See you all soon!