‘GREAT Day’—

Bob Moreau, proprietor of M&M Beverage in Randolph, has purchased the business from his brother. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Moreau Buys M&M

By Sandy Vondrasek

Most customers of M&M Beverage Center in Randolph have probably assumed that long-time store manager Bob Moreau owned the place. He’s the cheerful guy—"You have a GREAT day!"—with the reddish hair and moustache, who is pretty much always there.

Moreau started working at M&M in Randolph in 1978 while still in high school student, and went on to manage other beverage stores in Montpelier and Barre. He has been managing the Randolph M&M since 1985.

Last Wednesday, after close to 30 years of working for somebody else, Moreau became the new owner of the store, now called Bob’s M&M Beverage of Randolph.

He bought the business from his older brother Gilles Moreau, who also owns beverage store/gas station sites in South Barre, Montpelier, and West Brattleboro. The M&M name dates back to the late 1970s, when Gilles Moreau and the late Thomas Mowatt of Randolph co-owned a number of stores.

In an interview in his basement office this week, Moreau said he will continue working his usual six days a week as store manager, from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. He is usually in by 6:30 a.m.

Customers can watch for some small changes, innovations, and experiments, of course, but Moreau says that by now he knows what works.

"I’m not a believer in change," he stated.

A varied inventory and fair prices are part of the winning formula, and it doesn’t hurt that the store purveys the products—soda, beer, wine, liquor, and gas—that most everyone buys some of the time. But the most important draw at his store, Moreau firmly believes, is friendly service.

"It’s always been that way," said Moreau, noting that the store’s "family" feel and good reputation has also made it easy to attract employees, over the years.

Careful planning for the purchase, combined with his experience in the beverage, liquor, and bottle redemption business have resulted in a smooth ownership transition. Moreau is, however, in the process of picking up the particulars of the financial end of running a small business. The liquor portion of the business, he explained, is totally regulated by the state.

Assistant manager Sheryl Peters, one of the store’s 11 full and part-time employees, will help with bookkeeping.

Family Helpers

These days, Moreau, a Braintree resident, is also enjoying the assistance of two mini-employees, his children, Dylan, 10, and Haley, 8. The two come to the store each morning with their dad; each "punches in" and has a job.

Haley hauls out the windshield washing supplies and oil rack; her big brother has "graduated" to dealing with the newspapers, pulling off the older editions, and checking in the new ones.

Haley and Dylan aren’t there long, as they soon head out to catch the Braintree school bus, which stops across the street each weekday morning.

"I’m going to bring my kids up as workers," Moreau said.

That’s how he grew up. Moreau, who attended St. Monica’s in Barre as an elementary student—"That’s where I learned my manners"—graduated from Spaulding High School. While in high school, he noted, he would hitchhike north to his brother’s store in Newport to work on weekends.

Moreau clerked in the Randolph store 1978-79, while studying civil engineering at Vermont Technical College.

Then, after several years of managing M&M stores elsewhere, and a two-year stint as head of maintenance for Tom Mowatt, Bob Moreau took over management of the Randolph store in 1985.

An avid golfer, Moreau had regretfully concluded that he might take a bye on golfing next year, in order to focus on the business. But fate had something else lined up for him.

"I won a free golf membership for next year," he grinned.

Bob’s M&M is open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sunday.

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