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The Maine Maven, a new shop offering gifts and one-of-a-kind Maine items, opened in downtown Orono on Black Friday, Nov. 26.
The store is owned by Kristen Andresen Lainsbury, a writer and editor for the University of Maine’s University Relations department, and her husband Jason Lainsbury. It faces Mill Street, occupying a small but cozy space next to Park’s Hardware.
“It’s always been important to do it in this space because we have a long history here,” Jason said.
He and Kristen met as UMaine students on his first day of work at Park’s Hardware.
The couple have seriously contemplated opening their own business for over five years, but the idea may have been planted long before that.
“My dad was a small business owner and I’ve always wanted to be a small business owner, even before Kristen and I met,” Jason said.
Kristen recalls a gift shop that was operating on Mill Street below Ampersand during her time in college that has since closed.
“For me, as a college student, it was a place I could go and feel welcome,” she said.
Kristen hopes The Maine Maven will become a similar go-to store for college students and the rest of the local community. She describes the couple’s decision to pursue their small business dream as the alignment of several different factors.
“We had a little extra time, a little extra money and the space became available,” she said. “Once we started talking about it we knew within not even 48 hours, and we had a list of all the different vendors we wanted to carry.”
Since then, Kristen and Jason have been busy putting their vision into action, spending the past month renovating the store space to make it their own.
“We’re carrying the Maine products we really love and want to share,” Jason said. “We wanted the environment to feel like us, too.”
The atmosphere is inspired by their personal style and much of the furniture are antique pieces from the Lainsburys’ own home.
In spite of retro elements, The Maine Maven is a high-tech business. All transactions and inventory are processed on an iPad using a small cube-shaped plug-in device that scans credit cards.
Kristen and Jason would like to offer new items each week while remaining selective about their products.
“It’s kind of a different business model because a lot of people go through distributors or go to gift shows,” Kristen said. “We’re making individual contacts with each of these makers.”
“We probably have met with 90 percent of them in person,” Jason said of their contacts.
Every item in the store reflects the Lainsburys’ philosophy of custom and unexpected products that support artisans, Jason said, “from Yarmouth to Fort Fairfield to Greenville to Robbinston – all over the state.”
Many of the designers featured at The Maine Maven have never sold to a retailer before, preferring to use a website or Etsy page for their business.
“It was important for us to get merchandise that isn’t widely available, not just here but anywhere, to provide a unique experience,” Kristen said.
Kristen, a former writer for the Bangor Daily News and creator of her own Maine Maven blog, used her connections all over the state as a starting point for contacting Maine designers. Many of these contacts led to new connections, a phenomenon Kristen attributes to the “really small, tight-knit community” of artisans in the state.
The Maine Maven is not the first small business to open its doors in Old Town and Orono in the past year.
“We think the more that is going on in town, the better it is for everyone. There’s definitely new business going on and there’s a new energy,” Kristen said, referring to new businesses like Verve and Sushi Now. “It’s starting to really feel like a college town, which is really exciting.”
She said The Maine Maven won’t compete with existing small businesses in the area.
“It’s important to us that we don’t carry the same stuff as Ampersand or as Judy’s,” Kristen said. “We want to be a complement to what’s already here and give people one more reason to go downtown.”
Kristen and Jason had help from UMaine’s Foster Center for Student Innovation in planning their new business. Foster Center staff questioned why they didn’t consider a space in downtown Bangor.
“It was really important to us to do this in Orono because we’re both alumni of UMaine, we met through UMaine, we’ve made this our home and I work full time for the university,” Kristen said.
The couple is most excited about the custom UMaine-themed products they offer. Kristen emphasized the handmade Sea Bags, made from recycled sails, that have been featured in a number of national magazines and television programs.
The Maine Maven offers Sea Bags emblazoned with the university’s trademark blue “M” that are exclusive to the store.
“This to me is the UMaine status bag,” Kristen said. “It’s hard for me not to pull one off the shelf and use it myself.”
The Maine Maven also offers a line of Beer ME, Farm ME and Love ME T-shirts and accessories. Jason and Kristen hope items like this will attract UMaine students in search of gifts or something special for themselves.
“We wanted to offer things that had a younger vibe. A college guy could come in here and get something really nice for his girlfriend and not break the bank,” Kristen said, gesturing to the variety of jewelry in the case.
As an added incentive for college-aged shoppers, The Maine Maven will offer 10 percent off for UMaine students on Go Blue Fridays.
The Lainsburys have also commissioned a series of handmade letterpress postcards from a Portland printer highlighting UMaine traditions. The first one features a line from the Stein Song and, according to Kristen, they were a top seller in the store’s first weekend.
Jason was not sure what to expect from The Maven’s Black Friday opening with students and many families out of town for the holidays, but said it met all of their goals and was a success.
“What really felt good was on Sunday night and Monday morning, when we had to call about 12 small businesses to reorder product,” he said.
The Maven’s owners say the variety of products the store offers sets it apart from other Maine-themed stores.
“Sometimes you think of a Maine-made shop and you think of balsam pillows and potpourri,” Kristen said.
She wants The Maine Maven to appeal to shoppers of all ages.
“We want it to be a warm and cool-looking place where everything from Frank Sinatra to the Beastie Boys will be playing on the turntable,” Jason said.
Jason and Kristen, who just had their first child, hope their limited hours will not discourage shoppers. They think their evening hours will be convenient for people who work full time and cannot necessarily shop between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Current store hours are 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The Maine Maven will also be open by chance or by appointment.
“Send us an e-mail or give us a call,” Jason said. “We just live half a mile away and can be here at most any time. It’s just difficult to be here for long stretches with an infant.”
Jason admitted some people may think he and Kristen are crazy for starting a business during a recession, but he believes the economic downturn has changed the way people shop.
“Now that pockets are tighter, we know we’re more thoughtful about our money,” he said. “We hope people will want to support Maine business and think, ‘Hey, this is a way I can make a difference.’”
Jason said the couple has reached a point in their life where the economy will not stand in their way of achieving the lifestyle they want.
“It’s a dream a lot of our friends have, to have your own business and be your own boss,” Jason said. “I think we decided we’d talked about it long enough, let’s do it.”
Bangor Daily News