Cumberland Farms opens 2nd new store

Cumberland Farms newest store – a $3-million plus investment that has enhanced the business landscape at the intersection of Killingly Street and Trever Avenue in Johnston – opened for business last Thursday without any fanfare but plenty of activity.

“This place has been on fire,” Rick Lauder, a Johnston resident and regional manager for Cumberland Farms, offered Friday, less than a day after the 24-hour convenience store and fueling station opened. “People say they’re excited about our new store. Some folks can’t believe we opened as quickly as we did.”

It was only four months ago that Johnston officials – headed by Mayor Joseph Polisena – and Cumberland Farms officials held a groundbreaking ceremony and unveiled plans for the new state-of-the-art facility.

According to a company spokesperson, an official ribbon cutting-grand opening will be held sometime soon. The new location represents the second such project Cumberland Farms has completed in Johnston of late.

The 4,513-square-foot Killingly Street location is also drawing rave reviews from a number of people.

“It’s fantastic,” Edmund DiMeglio was saying last Friday while sitting at an umbrella-covered table and enjoying a cup of coffee with his wife Dolores. “This place is so clean, and the people are really helpful about where to find different items ... it’s a great addition to our neighborhood.”

The DiMeglios, who on Oct. 1 will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, own and operate the famous DiMeglio Music Store directly across the street from Cumberland Farms. That store, Edmund noted, has been a family run Johnston business dating back to 1935.

For the DiMeglios, the new Cumberland Farms store will offer a nice place for lunch or just a cup of coffee, which they enjoyed last Friday under an umbrella at one of four tables on a nifty patio.

Cumberland Farms, Lauder noted, “will be a place for a lot of people – and non-profit organizations.”

Take J-DAPA, or Johnston Dance and Performing Arts, a community theater group that recently received a generous donation of $1,965 from the sale of coffee at Cumberland Farms’ other new store at 2643 Hartford Ave.

“I’m dropping off a check for that total to Donna Tellier,” Lauder said with a wide smile on his face. “Just think, that came from the sale of 19,652 cups of coffee at the Hartford Avenue store.”

With the opening of each new store, Cumberland Farms will join forces with a Johnston-based non-profit for a period of 30 days during its grand opening celebration and offer a program that gives that group 10 cents from the sale of every cup of coffee.

Lauder said that non-profit will be announced at the upcoming grand opening.

“It’s truly a pleasure to give back to the community where we live,” Lauder said. “It’s important to support non-profit youth oriented groups in town.”