The Home Office and Fort Fairfield Store

Let’s face it, it’s never easy when you have health needs. But a local company, based in Fort Fairfield, Maine, handles the difficult time with services and products delivered with the kind of service that only Aroostook County can inspire. Acadia Medical Supply is that kind of company and its growth reflects its family values and customer-centered philosophy.

Scott and Steve Clark, two brothers from Fort Fairfield, started the business in 2001. Both had previous associations with the medical supply business, Steve with a technical background servicing equipment and as a certified rehab technician and the Scott with a respiratory and sleep therapy background. They wanted to start a supply business that was based and serviced from the county and not beholden to a faraway office.

The business has expanded in seven short years to four locations: Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Houlton and Presque Isle, and beside the two brothers, now employees 17 people. They service major health centers as far aways as South Paris and Lincoln.

Here is how their service commitment makes them different: Say for

Murchison stands next to an amazing device that allows those paralyzed from the waist down to stand upright themselves.

example, that a senior member of the community has a stroke. The hospital and physician decide the patient will need a walker, oxygen, a shower chair and other medical supplies. The hospital will call Acadia Medical Supply who then handles all the paperwork involved for Medicare or other insurance companies, delivers and sets up the equipment and leaves instructions on its use. Says Shawn Murchison, the company’s marketing director, “We do everything possible to take the worry out of these arrangements so the patient can focus on getting well.”

Kim and her staff servicing their customers

You aren’t going to get a fancy phone system when you call one of their numbers either. There are no phone trees and selections to punch on the phone. A live person answers the phone at all times. And since their services are required 24 hours a day, even their answering service is required to personally answer the phone during the wee hours of the morning. And every dealing with a customer is entered into their customer database so nothing is ever missed. Their customer service tools and computer system are impressive and hardy enough to handle their passion for customer care. Insurance companies are all billed electronically by their computer tools.

Customized Wheelchairs of all Sizes

The family spirit of the company extends to its customers. It is not uncommon for the families of health victims to donate the equipment back to the company so that other sufferers who are also in tough times can have the benefits of good equipment too.

The business has a real family feel to it. Company Christmas parties are held at one of the brother’s house and their wifes cook a feast for all. During the Potato Blossom Festival, all employee family members gather at the Fort Fairfield location and enjoy the parade together. Murchison is earnest and sincere when he talks enthusiastically of how much he enjoys working for the company. His wife, Kim, is the Billing Manager. The company is also involved in the community and works with United Way and other organizations.

It’s not always easy though. Medicare and other insurance provider rules change all the time and make it more and more difficult to get the benefits health sufferers need. Kim and her staff do everything possible to make it possible to work around these difficulties so that everyone has the help they need when they need it.

Catnapper Recliners

These kinds of services are not all the company provides. They have the most extensive and largest uniform and “scrubs” in the area and offer a 10% discount to any health worker, whether they work in a dental office, hospital or private practice. The Boston Red Sox scrubs are particularly popular! They also sell furniture and not just medical assist furniture. They have a large collection of recliners with heat and massage units in the Catnapper line of furniture.

The success of the business is a testament to their product lines and services. The company services all but two nursing homes in all of Aroostook County, an impressive accomplishment in just seven short years.

Some of Acadia Medical Supply's Large Product Selection

Besides home and facility delivery, the four store locations offer a large retail supply of respiratory care products, custom wheelchairs, seating systems, scooters, uniforms, physical therapy products, professional therapeutic fittings including diabetic shoes and compression stockings, home medical equipment and incontinent and Ostomy supplies.

All these supplies and services are provided confidentially and with the utmost care with the goal of total patient satisfaction. As Murchison says, “Patient Satisfaction is Number 1.” This family and service oriented Acadia Medical Supply combines that philosophy and desirable and necessary products and have earned a unique position of success in what they do.

To families affected by such addictions, this is the best news in a long time. The fact that the compound is a product of a small Maine startup company is also exciting.

Joseph Sleeper

The story starts with Joseph Sleeper. Joseph was born in Syria/Lebanon some time around 1883. He came to America around 1911. The Sleeper name is a likely Ellis Island corruption so familiar to those times. The original family name was likely Saliba.

Joseph followed the Hackett family soon after that family’s arrival to Caribou, Maine and began peddling from a horse and buggy. A humorous family legend is that one night, Joseph got his horse and buggy caught in a snow storm and had to sleep in the same bed as a farmer who Sleeper had gone to see about a sale.

In 1913, Sleeper began a small store across the street from the present Sleepers Market. A year later, he opened a larger store in the store’s present location. Going to a market like Sleepers was more of a communal thing in those days. Farmers would buy supplies and clothing after harvest, wood teams would buy supplies to get through the winters in the lumber camps and the market served both of those needs as well as the residents who resided in the “Flat” as the area was always known (before the days of the highway).

An Early View of Sleepers Market

Joseph Sleeper was good to his customers and they were loyal to him as well. Many families owe a good part of their survival through the Great Depression on Sleeper’s good will and endless credit book. Many survivors of those years have shared with the present Sleepers that Old Joseph “carried their family.”

Joseph Sleeper died in 1959 and the next generation took over in the form of Ike and Joseph Junior, both of whom returned to the area after serving in the armed forces. Their partnership was astounding in context with today’s times. Ike and Joseph got along so well that their was only one checkbook between the two families for major purchases and they shared a camp at the lake and this family center is still very much in evidence today.

Other members of the second generation scattered, the most prominent of whom settled in Bangor and was very successful in the clothing business down there and in Madawaska with a successfully jewelry business.

Ike and Joseph were fortunate for two heady events that really grew their business. The first was the arrival of Loring Air Force Base in Limestone. Caribou became the weekend excursion event for most of those airmen stationed there and they had money to spend. The second event was the highway, which ended up being built right up to Sleepers Market’s dooryard. This brought increased traffic by the store and that certainly helped the business.

Sleepers Market in One of Its Fourteen Modifications

During Ike and Joseph’s tenure, the border with Canada became less restrictive and shopping across the border became more attractive for the Canadians. These were certainly good times and the store had additions built fourteen times! The only original section is the clothing basement, which has remained pretty much intact for years.

The store always had a discount mentality and the Sleepers fostered good relations with vendors and salesmen which got them good deals on the merchandise they would sell in the store. A unique difference from Sleepers and other stores of those times was the family’s ability to buy directly from the manufacturers. According to the present owners, Joseph had storage facilities all over Caribou to store the large supplies he was able to purchase to be able to sell his products at a substantial discount.

The second generation started slowing down in the 1980s and it was time for the next generation to begin taking over. All of the Sleepers youngsters worked in the store while growing up. Comically, David relates that he was fired (in what was a traumatic event at the time that the mothers smoothed over) in the eighth grade. Several family members would take turns working the evening so all would have equal time to spend enjoying the summers at the lake.

The store is now in the capable hands of Mark and David, Ike’s sons and Jo-Jo, Joseph’s son. Mark came back around 1979, Jo-Jo in the 1980s and David in 1989. Many times in business, the second and third generations do not possess the creative intelligence to continue to grow a business. That is why so many family businesses are sold out of the family after the patriarch passes. The Sleeper family seems to defy that normal convention. And it’s a good thing.

From Left to Right: Jo-Jo, Mark and David Sleeper in their store in Caribou.

Mark, Jo-Jo and David have been slammed over the years with four major, traumatic events. The first was the closing of the Loring Air Force Base. Suddenly, a huge chunk of the spending population was gone. The second was the opening of the Aroostook Centre Mall, which had a couple of stores that rivaled the Sleepers clothing lines and prices. The third was the opening of Walmart, the local town business killers who offer large varieties of merchandise at low prices. And if those three weren’t enough, laws in Canada stiffened and there was much less flexibility for Canadian shoppers to shop on this side of the border.

These difficult times swallowed many local businesses. But still the Sleepers endured. Jo-Jo took over the clothing lines. One of the first things he did was use a contact he made in college. While there, he became good friends of the son of the northeast distributor for Nike. With that kind of contact, Jo-Jo was able to bring the extremely popular Nike brand to Aroostook and was the first, and for many years, the only one who sold the brand during the heyday of the Air Jordan. The hot shoe brand today is Merrill Boots and of course, Sleepers carries them.

Buying direct from New York and then California, Jo-Jo continues a family tradition of bringing top brands to his store for less. He keeps his eyes on the market and usually finds the hot brands quickly and brings that brand to Caribou. His clothing section also did a great business in work wear, especially after OSHA became a reality and companies became more health conscious. Several times a year, Jo-Jo takes his show on the road to local manufacturers and has done very well selling to those local companies.

The Sleepers also diversified. They saw an opportunity at the mall when Poor Simon’s closed in 2000 and left the mall without a store that catered to young people. Thus, Trader Joes was born in June of 2000 and has been a successful enterprise for them. David also noted the trend to “Dollar” type stores and did some research. That research led to another opportunity at the mall when the Buck Stop store closed and the Sleepers bought the business. “Expect More Dollar Store” was born and through research and hard work, it became an “upscale” dollar store. Another was added on Bennett Drive in Caribou.

Another facet which has cushioned Sleepers from the fate of so many of the post-base/mall/Walmart era is the family’s attention to service. The Sleepers train their people to appreciate and respect the customers. In the clothing area, the Sleepers bring in company representatives so that clothing salespeople can tell a customer exactly what is different from their brand of jacket to another popular brand so the customer can make smart decisions. The staff works hard to recognize customers and greet them warmly.

David Sleeper says that he rarely says no to anything, which is the same spirit of Grandfather Joseph to accommodate the customer. The Sleepers do not run the business from some lofty perch. Mark is often seen at the Mall and the boys are always in their stores working. Customers don’t just see the company name, they see the Sleepers themselves which promotes a familiarity that brings people back where they are comfortable.

The Sleepers are competitive. They echo the sentiments of Gene Berube of Gene’s Electronics that the competitive nature of business keeps them going and keeps the spark active. That spark does not sit back in a 96 year old business and not look for new opportunities and trends. Whereas David used to take tons of fliers all over the area, the company is now moving strongly in the on-line world. For the first time, the clothing line will be on-line and the family can begin selling to customers out of the area.

David has been astounded by the results of his weekly electronic newsletter e-mailed to customers that give him their addresses. The mailing list is over 400 now and Mark says that when David announces that chicken is on sale for 39 cents a pound, the store is full of people looking for the chicken. David says that he gets three or four responses within minutes of sending the newsletter out. Many of those responses are thank you letters. The market is the only one in the area that still cuts meat on site and are famous for their seafood as well.

The Sleepers in many ways seem to be a part of the very soul of the town. Their long time presence, their commitment to their neighbors and to family is also shown in their involvement in so many ways in the community. No, this isn’t a family that has rested on their laurels or the work of their fathers. The business has never been stale nor have they taken for granted their customers. They work hard, they play hard and their eyes are always searching for another opportunity.

The many hardships and factors described previously would have buried just about any other business. With the current financial hard times and the shutting of some of the paper mills could discourage many other folks. But despite hard times, the Sleepers franchise is growing and fresh and still cutting edge after 96 years.

Gene's Electronics Booth at the Aroostook Centre Mall, Presque Isle.

Gene Berube of Fort Kent likes the old Walter Cronkite expression and uses it often. The phrase describes his life philosophy and the way he markets and sells his products and services. The phrase also describes the man you see so often on his popular television ads. The man you see in his commercials is the same guy in person.

Berube, a native of Fort Kent, Maine, graduated from Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute (now known as NMCC) in 1972 with a degree in Electronics and Television Repair. Two years later, he opened shop in Fort Kent repairing televisions, (later VCRs) and installing antennas. His love of all things electronic sparked an interest in the new technology of satellite television to which he became a pioneer.

Hitting that satellite market in full stride, in an area that featured remote living locations, was a natural and his business in that area quickly overtook and finally, ended his repair business. Berube’s company first was a provider of C Band satellite and those old twelve foot dishes can still be seen dotting the landscape all over Aroostook County.

Gene's Store Front in Fort Kent

Berube then became an authorized dealer of the Primestar satellite network and the dishes shrunk from twelve feet to four. From Primestar, Berube then became a dealer of the Dish Network and presently, DirectTV (though he still carries the Dish Network product).

The man behind Gene’s Electronics also credits his wife, Diane, who has worked beside him for all those years. She has always maintained the books and has fully supported her husband and he appreciates the moral center and support she has maintained throughout.

Berube succinctly disagrees that Aroostook County and Maine are difficult places to do business. “If you have a good product that people want and can sell it, there is no reason not to be able to do business here,” he says.

Not that he’s never had a struggle or two. When asked when he knew his business was going to make it, he replies: “After 25 years.” Though the interviewer laughed, Berube wasn’t joking. “You can be a good mechanic, but that doesn’t mean you are good in business. I had to learn from mistakes and there were struggles.” He fully believes that business sense can be learned and cites himself as an example.

“Hi. This is Gene from Gene’s Electronics,” is a familiar sound to everyone in Aroostook County. Berube’s effective use of advertising has made him one of the most recognizable faces in the area. And rightly so: His style is direct and engaging with more than a hint of twinkle in his eyes. His Valley accent comes across as charming and brings the consumer into his words instantly. Says Berube: “Aroostook County is a large area, spread out over many miles. The best way to reach them is with advertising and I do a lot of it. And it has really worked for us.”

His philosophy in advertising is the familiar, “That’s the way it is.” He does not resort to gimmicks and does not try to hoodwink anyone. “I’ve never taken advantage of anyone,” he says proudly and that approach has led to customers all over the county and helps him compete with Cable and other satellite providers. And he competes very well indeed.

Speaking with his employees, they hold Gene and his family in high regard and feel that the company treats them well. Berube smiled when given this information and was happy with the news. He treats his people with respect and it shows.

Berube also understands that service is important and though his products usually come with a 90 day guarantee, Gene’s Electronics guarantee all of their products for a full year. “Taking care of the customers is a big part of what we do,” he says.

The satellite television business was cutting edge when Gene’s Electronics entered the field and Berube’s love of that technology has helped him stay current on what is a growing and changing business. And yet his experiences give him a wisdom of the pitfalls of being an entrepreneur. He encourages all new business owners who are not business savvy to work with someone who is. He also advocates staying in tune with the market and keeping a close watch on trends and new business areas.

When asked how long a new business should keep going in the face of struggles, Berube insists that, “If you are not making money and you cannot see a light ahead,” then get out of that business. He also advocates being aggressive and competitive: “We all compete for business. You have to enjoy the competition to keep going.” He has done so by offering very competitive pricing and a good value without hidden tricks.

Berube is a Golden Rule kind of guy and credits his parents for instilling that in him. After spending some time with him, this interviewer is convinced that Berube’s combination of charm, honesty, competitiveness and forthrightness, along with his special skills at advertising and knowing his market have led his company to be one of the most well known from all corners of this very large county.

Maine Digital Press is a concept that just makes sense. Maine is a tough place to do business. There’s not a whole lot of support, nor is there a whole lot of money to help valuable and indigenous ideas to get started and keep going. That is the common conception. But is it true? We will see as we feature businesses that are thriving in this atmosphere.

We, ourselves, are a new and progressive business with a flourishing publishing brand and other exciting pans in the fire. But where can we go to talk abour our ideas? What’s left in our budgets for Public Relations and Marketing to support our products? And is any current media working that at least breaks even in the cost of producing that PR and marketing effort? We will find those answers too.

Maine Digital Press will feature news stories about forward thinkers, crafty doers and plucky, enduring businesses that weather the years with creative and imaginative practices.

Since we are here in Aroostook County, we’ll cover the area. But if you want to join our writing team and feature your county, let us know. Even if you are in Aroostook, good writing is good writing and we’d love to have you aboard.

Also, if you want to nominate a business for a story (even yours!), let us know that too. Have a growing church that does things in new and interesting ways? Why not! Let us know. Do you have a nonprofit organization that is really making a difference because of new ideas? We want to hear from you too.

We hope to avoid politics except where it affects our businesses and organizations. But other than that, we want whatever interests you. Our official kick off date will be February 1, 2009, but you might see a story or two before that.

We would also love to provide a meaningful place for you to advertise. Our rates will be fair and a value compared to other media outlets.

Thank you again for stopping by. Bookmark us and come see us again soon.