Maine Digital Press

The Sleeper family has been a fixture on the “Flat” in Caribou for 96 years. During that time, this remarkable family has had sweeping and prosperous times and fought staggering challenges. Despite either cycle, the Sleepers and their businesses have continued to grow. As we shall see, this unlikely endurance is due to the intelligence of its ownership, but more than that, is imbued with a sense of family and values that carries through any hardship.

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.