Citizen Profile: John Magro @ Newburyport’s Richdale

On the first warm Saturday morning that truly feels like spring, Richdale is abuzz with customers. A steady stream of foot traffic navigates the aisles of amply stocked shelves of sundries. A female customer is carefully examining the store’s extensive selection of Newburyport-emblem T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baseball caps before she carries an armful of her preferred items to the checkout counter. A young man whom I’ve seen at various locations around town sits at the Lottery counter facing Pleasant Street, but his eyes are fixated on a Keno screen in the upper corner of the room. At the opposite end of the store, the newly constructed and relocated Dunkin’ Donuts counter is very busy. Short lines queue for brief caffeinated transactions.

The store’s atmosphere is almost festive while I patiently wait to chat with John Magro, the proprietor. Scanning the layout of the store, I see Magro emerge from a door just beyond the suspended sign that beckons customers to sample the store’s locally famous 25-cent hot dogs. It will take a few moments for Magro to make his way to me; several customers approach him and want to chat. He greets each as a friend and spends a few moments with each in conversation.

“Oh, so you found the place,” Magro says to me. His greeting is in jest; I have stopped into the store twice in the past two months to cajole Magro for this interview.

We sit on stools at the narrow coffee counter opposite Dunkin Donuts’ array of donuts and muffins. But we only spend a few minutes here; as the store’s “coffee pulse” increases, we give up our seats to the coffee clientele and relocate to the back of the store where we stand to chat. I use a case of Bud Lite as a writing table. From this obscure vantage point, Magro benevolently watches over his convenience store family.

Magro is an understated man whose warmth for people is key to the success of this “corner store,” which he has owned and operated the past 13 years on the corner of State and Pleasant Streets. He honed his business acumen, however, in Richdale’s corporate sphere. “I was a Richdale district manager for 18 years,” Magro shares. He oversaw Richdale stores from Somerville to southern New Hampshire. But being at the helm of his own store is “an entirely different animal” says Magro.

“The best part of running the store is getting to know all the people who come in,” Magro states. With Richdale being open for business from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., every day except for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Magro has gotten to know a lot of people. But it’s through snippets of time, over the years, that Magro has built relationships with his local legion of regular customers. “Most of my customers typically spend only a few minutes in the store while they make their purchase,” Magro explains. But through the collective multitude of their visits, friendships have developed between Magro and the many customers who give pulse to his store.

He is equally fond of the people who work for him. “I have a very good crew,” Magro states. Erin, a young woman who has worked for Magro for the last six years, checks an item on a shelf nearby to where Magro and I are speaking. I ask Erin if she has any humorous stories she might be willing to share about her boss. Erin laughs, and appears to be considering a story or two, but instead she politely evades our web of conversation and resumes her position behind the store’s checkout counter. I ask Magro to reveal his secret for maintaining his staff. “I just treat people well,” he states simply.

One of six siblings, Magro grew up in Nahant. His father, a fit octogenarian, still lives in Nahant and travels to Magro’s Richdale store each weekend to lend his son a helping hand. Magro’s wife Lynne worked in the store alongside her husband prior to the arrival of the couple’s daughter, Emilia, eight years ago. Today, Lynne manages the family’s home in Southern New Hampshire (which, of course, Magro says, includes a dog and a cat), while Magro manages the business. “Do you think Emilia will work in your store one day?” I inquire. “Oh, she’s already said that she wants to work here!” Magro smiles. The store’s brand-new penny candy section might be one appealing reason for Emilia wanting to join her father.

“Oh, everyone loves the penny candy,” Magro asserts. “From children to senior citizens, the candy is a popular draw.” Clear glass canisters allow those with a sweet-tooth to admire the colorful confections before scooping their purchases into individual bags. “But the store carries all sorts of items,” Magro proudly says. He describes his Richdale as an “umbrella store” where both tourists and locals can find whatever they need. Though he loves Newburyport’s festivals, and the store goes into overdrive during Yankee Homecoming week, Magro says that his local customers carry him throughout the year. “I sold a lot of rock salt this past winter,” Magro laughs. As we walk toward the front of the store, Magro the would-be vintner points out the store’s impressive wine selection.

“I’m a tough interview, aren’t I?” Magro teases. I step into the April sunshine, where Magro’s father is engaged in an animated sidewalk conversation with two customers whom I had seen inside the store. I overhear them expressing their delight for the store’s recent makeover; the senior Magro affably accepts the compliment on his son’s behalf. Although during the course of our interview Magro talked more about his store than about himself, it occurs to me that he has, in a sense, shared with me his personal Richdale family narrative.

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Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. Kathleen can be reached at Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com