Hannaford performs a vital position on this household’s love story
It was 1982 when Sara Ellis’ mother and father fell in love whereas working at a Hannaford in Bangor. Twenty-two years later, it’s the place her personal love story started.
Ellis was a scholar at Orono Excessive College when in the future in 2004 she visited her mom, Brenda Stout, on the Hannaford retailer the place she labored. Stout launched her to Todd Ellis, a younger affiliate within the produce division. They turned co-workers when Sara Ellis joined the employees as a service clerk about six months later.
It was roughly a 12 months later that Todd Ellis started pursuing her, which took a while as a result of she wasn’t certain if she was . However he was humorous and protracted, and Sara Ellis remembers the night time she known as her finest good friend to say, “Oh my god, I feel I’ve emotions for Todd.”
They dated for nearly a 12 months, however the relationship didn’t final. A decade glided by, throughout which Sara Ellis obtained a divorce, earlier than they reconnected at a Fourth of July celebration that his mother and father had been internet hosting. They had been good buddies for a number of years earlier than committing to one thing greater, then marrying in 2018.
Whereas loads of {couples} have met as Hannaford staff, it’s unlikely that their love tales and dedication to the corporate span throughout generations like this one. The household has greater than 100 years of mixed service to the corporate, together with Sara and Todd Ellis, her mother and father and her brother, Ben Stout.
“I really like our story,” Todd Ellis, 39, mentioned. “It has its personal distinctive historical past.”
Hannaford Supermarkets is predicated in Scarborough and has practically 30,000 associates. The corporate operates greater than 180 shops in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.
Sara and Todd Ellis celebrated 5 years of marriage final month with a photoshoot on the retailer in Outdated City, donning matching black T-shirts that learn, “Love dropped at you by Hannaford.”
There’s {a photograph} the place they’re kissing close to the baked items and one other, subsequent to the butter and eggs, the place they’re smiling huge subsequent to their boys. They’ve two sons: 2-year-old Wyatt and Andre, who’s 16 months outdated.
Sara Ellis, 35, and her husband now not work at Hannaford, however it’s typically that they run into former co-workers and individuals who knew Sara Ellis as a “Hannaford child” and watched her develop up, she mentioned.
She remembers stopping by Hannaford to indicate off her Halloween costume to her mom earlier than going trick-or-treating along with her father. The corporate hosted a softball match, annual summer season celebration and different occasions for workers and their households, she mentioned.
“These had been the issues I appeared ahead to yearly,” she mentioned. “Hannaford was an enormous staple in my life. It’s not essentially in regards to the retailer however extra in regards to the neighborhood.”
Sara Ellis is a medical assistant at DownEast Orthopedics in Bangor. Todd Ellis works as a supervisor at nonprofit NFI North, which supplies behavioral and psychological well being providers.
Her mother and father have every spent greater than 40 years at Hannaford and nonetheless work for the corporate — on the Union Avenue retailer, the place Sara and Todd Ellis met.
Brenda and Scott Stout, who dwell in Glenburn in the home the place they raised their youngsters, locked eyes whereas working on the Hannaford retailer on Broadway in 1982, then their story unfolded, their daughter mentioned. That they had their first date at Miller’s Restaurant and the Bangor State Truthful. They married in 1985.
“Most individuals assume our story is type of cute,” Sara Ellis mentioned. “Within the Bangor space, we will go to any of the shops, and there’s a very good probability we’ll run into any person who is aware of us or my mother and father.”
