Archie Wallace’s Groceries & Provisions

When Friendship’s lobstermen spent winters building wooden boats to earn extra income between fishing seasons, they needed somewhere to stock up on supplies. Since 1855, that place has been Archie Wallace’s Groceries & Provisions.

The market has witnessed nearly every chapter of this coastal Maine village’s story. Its wooden floors still carry the scuff marks of generations of fishermen’s boots tracking in salt, mud, and sawdust. Through the rise and fall of Friendship’s shipyards, the transition from sail to diesel, and decades of change along the working waterfront, Wallace’s remained a constant.

Friendship held tightly to tradition – so tightly that the town was among Maine’s last dry communities, debating for years whether alcohol sales belonged in a village where neighbors knew one another by name and often by boat name. When residents finally voted to allow beer sales in 2009, Wallace’s became one of the few places in America where you could buy both lobster bait and a six-pack before sunrise. Another chapter in the ongoing conversation between preserving the past and embracing the future.

Today, Wallace’s still opens before dawn to serve the lobster fleet. Locals stop in for groceries, coffee, and an Italian sandwich worth the drive, while visitors discover something increasingly rare: a place where community remains part of the daily routine. Free air for your tires, a quick conversation at the counter, and a familiar face behind it all – small gestures that reflect the spirit of a town named Friendship.

In an age of self-checkouts and overnight delivery, Wallace’s endures as something more than a general store. It’s a reminder that some places still measure their success by who walks through the door, not what they spend.