NEWPORT — Maplefields is now open for business in Newport. The convenience store, located on the corner of Main and Third Street, just across from Family Dollar, opened their doors for the first time on Wednesday.
The store is giving away free coffee over the next week as an incentive to bring people in and have a look around.
In the first few days Maplefields is just getting everything up and running, with some product still coming in. However, by Thursday afternoon the place was packed.
“So far, so good,” Joe Sibley, district manager of Maplefields said on Thursday. “This is a great community, and we’re very happy to be here.”
Inside the store is a kiosk style restaurant called Amato’s. Primarily Italian food, they offer pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. Amato’s is a franchise which started in Maine, and with the addition of the Newport location, there are now eleven in Vermont.
There is a touch screen ordering system in place that allows you to customize your food order, which they say leads to more accuracy, as well as saving time. When finished the system prints out a numbered receipt that you use to pay up front.
Currently, Maplefields in Newport has 25 employees, with plans to add a few more in the future.
“This is our first Northeast Kingdom store, and we’ve been very well received so far,” Otto Hansen, regional manager of Maplefields said. “It’s great to be at a downtown location.”
