America’s easternmost city is about to lose something most Mainers probably never think twice about having nearby: a grocery store.
R&M IGA, Eastport’s only full-service grocery store, is scheduled to close Sept. 3, leaving residents facing a roughly 40-minute drive to Calais for many fresh groceries and everyday necessities.
Owner Merilyn Mills announced the closure after failing to find a buyer willing to take over the four-generation family business, according to the Bangor Daily News.
On its own, R&M’s closing could be viewed as the familiar story of a longtime small-business owner reaching retirement without another generation prepared to take the reins.
But Eastport is hardly alone.
Across rural Maine, communities have watched their grocery stores and general stores disappear one after another, raising a larger question about whether the economics of operating the small businesses that once anchored Maine towns are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
Ashland Food Mart, the only grocery store serving Ashland and several nearby communities, closed earlier this year before the property headed toward foreclosure.
Residents of Ashland now travel more than 20 miles to Presque Isle for groceries.
Stockholm lost its only grocery store in 2023.
Grand Isle lost its general store in 2022.
And this spring, Doughty’s Island Market, the only store on Chebeague Island, closed after 65 years in business, leaving approximately 400 year-round residents without the island institution generations had relied upon.
Now Eastport joins that list.
The circumstances surrounding each closure are different, and there is no evidence that government policy or any single operating expense forced R&M IGA to shut its doors.
Mills has said she is retiring, and she was unable to find someone willing to purchase and continue operating the store.
But the inability to find a buyer for an established grocery business serving an entire community raises another question:
Why is operating one of rural Maine’s most essential businesses apparently becoming such a difficult proposition?
Costs Have Moved In One Direction
The financial environment confronting small Maine employers has changed considerably over the past six years.
Maine’s minimum wage stood at $12 per hour in 2020.
It rose to $12.15 in 2021, $12.75 in 2022, $13.80 in 2023, $14.15 in 2024 and $14.65 in 2025.
On Jan. 1, 2026, it increased again to $15.10 per hour.
That represents an increase of nearly 26 percent since 2020.
For a large supermarket chain operating hundreds or thousands of stores, increased labor costs can be spread across a huge operation.
For a small rural grocery store with a limited customer base, every additional dollar in operating expense has to come from somewhere.
Electricity presents another challenge.
Grocery stores are uniquely energy intensive. Refrigerators, freezers, coolers, lighting and food-storage systems need to operate whether the store is crowded or empty.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data show Maine commercial customers were paying an average of 22.24 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity in June 2026.
In July 2020, the comparable Maine commercial rate was 11.95 cents per kilowatt-hour. While the two figures represent different months and should not be treated as a precise six-year cost comparison, they illustrate how dramatically Maine’s commercial electricity environment has changed.
Eastport property taxpayers have also seen their municipal tax rate rise.
City tax records show Eastport’s mill rate was $25.60 per $1,000 of assessed value for the fiscal year beginning in 2021.
For the fiscal year running July 2025 through June 2026, the mill rate was $30.39.
That is an increase of nearly 19 percent.
Again, those figures do not establish that taxes, wages or electricity caused R&M IGA to close.
They do show the environment in which someone considering purchasing and operating a small-town grocery store must make that decision.
And so far, nobody has stepped forward.
More Than an Inconvenience
Eastport’s problem goes well beyond losing another locally owned business.
R&M IGA is currently listed by Maine’s WIC program as an authorized vendor at 88 Washington St., meaning the store is part of the food-access network used by qualifying women, infants and children.
Once the store closes, residents looking for a conventional supermarket will largely have to travel to Calais, where options include Tradewinds and Calais IGA. Other Washington County food vendors exist in communities including Lubec, Princeton and Machias, but geography matters enormously in Washington County.
A 40-minute grocery trip may simply be frustrating for someone with a dependable vehicle.
For an elderly resident who no longer drives, a disabled resident, or a low-income family sharing transportation, the loss can fundamentally change daily life.
Approximately 20 R&M employees are also expected to lose their jobs as a result of the closure, according to the BDN.
And there is another consequence that cannot easily be measured on a spreadsheet.
Small-town grocery stores often function as more than places to buy milk.
They become gathering places, employers, information exchanges and informal community centers.
When they disappear, something about the town disappears with them.
What Is Augusta’s Plan?
Maine officials routinely speak about strengthening rural communities, attracting younger residents and encouraging economic development outside the state’s population centers.
But keeping people in rural Maine requires more than broadband projects, housing programs and economic-development grants.
People need food.
They need pharmacies.
They need gas stations.
They need banks.
And they need employers.
The loss of Eastport’s grocery store should therefore prompt state policymakers to ask questions that extend well beyond Washington County.
How many Maine municipalities have lost their only grocery store since 2020?
How many residents now live more than 20 miles from a full-service supermarket?
Does the state track communities at risk of becoming food deserts?
How many independent grocery stores have closed while operating costs have increased?
And what state economic-development programs, if any, exist specifically to help preserve essential businesses before they disappear?
Those questions take on greater significance as the examples accumulate.
Grand Isle.
Stockholm.
Ashland.
Chebeague Island.
Now Eastport.
The closures do not all share the same cause, and it would be irresponsible to pretend they do.
But the outcome is remarkably similar.
One day a community has a store.
The next day residents are driving to another town for groceries.
R&M IGA’s closure is therefore more than the end of a four-generation family business.
It is another warning about the fragility of rural Maine’s economic infrastructure.
Politicians can promise to revitalize rural Maine.
But a community becomes considerably harder to revitalize when no one can make the numbers work on the town’s only grocery store.
