White Horse General Store in Plymouth closes after 40 years
The White Horse General Store, once a staple of White Horse Beach in Plymouth, has closed its doors — capping off precisely 40 years of business with a cake and party.
The store remained open during its regular hours Monday, but when the clock hit 5 p.m., a retirement party kicked off on the lawn for owner Francis Kuhn. Outside, visitors and staff dug into a spread of brownies, cookies, and a sheet cake decorated with frosting balloons and “40 Years” in frosted blue lettering, according to a post on the store’s Facebook page.
Kuhn said Tuesday that he took over as the store’s owner on April 1, 1984, so he chose Monday as his last day of business to mark the anniversary.
“It was really a celebration for being here 40 years,” as much as visitors framed it as a retirement party, Kuhn said on a phone call Tuesday morning. “There were people that came down from a great distance.”
Kuhn said his family had no idea how large the after-hours party would end up being, but it drew more than a hundred visitors.
“From near and far you traveled to share stories, buy one last [memento], scratch one more ticket, and sip one more coffee! We hugged, we cried, we laughed, and we reminisced,” the post read, in part. “Our hearts will forever be a part of this store.”
The store announced its closure last week, also through a Facebook post. For around 40 years, its site, 121 White Horse Road, has served as a community hub, where locals met for coffee or shuffled in to buy homemade honey.
In his last week of business, Kuhn said visitors came from as far as New Hampshire to catch the store’s “final days,” swooping up candies, VHS tapes, and lottery tickets as makeshift souvenirs.
“People were just trying to buy whatever was left that would remind them of the store,” Kuhn said. “People paid more attention to detail.”
Scale models of the store were especially popular, Kuhn said. For years, he sold one or two per month, but after announcing the closure, he sold out of the models in days. He bought another three dozen to keep up with demand, but they sold out in around two weeks.
Tuesday morning, owners posted a photo of an empty lottery ticket dispenser on the store’s Facebook page. Gifts and cards wishing a happy retirement sat spread atop the dispenser.
“A month ago it was completely full,” Kuhn said of the ticket dispenser Tuesday. He spoke on the general store’s main phone. In the background, a crew of men laughed and wished Kuhn well. He said they were lottery workers coming to collect their equipment.
The general store will open by appointment and sporadically for pop-up “retirement hours,” Kuhn said. He said he plans to post information about temporary openings on the store’s Facebook page. He plans to rent space to another business, ideally another general store that could serve a similar role for the community.