Judy Brownell started working at Hatch’s Package Store and gas station as a young woman in 1973. Six years later, Judy and Butler Brownell purchased the store from Katherine (Hatch) Dunham. Over the course of more than 40 years in business on Orange Street, Brownell built Hatch’s into the largest package store on Nantucket, and has seen generations of customers come through the doors.
“There are stories, but some of them probably shouldn’t be printed,” she said last week with a laugh. “Those are the best ones.”
But her run at the helm of the iconic island package store has come to an end. Last week Brownell sold the package store and gas station business, along with the property, to Island Energy Services for $6 million. The sale was the culmination of negotiations that had been ongoing since last fall, she said.
“I’d been approached by a lot of people, but I looked at their company, they’re local, they know the gas business and they take care of their employees,” Brownell said. “Those things were important to me and we came to an agreement. I’m happy they got it and they’re going to do a great job. And I made the choice of getting out while I still have good health.”
Brownell had been contemplating an exit from the business for several years. The pandemic, along with the subsequent staffing challenges that almost all businesses have faced, hastened her plans to move on to the next chapter.
“Ironically, two years ago I had a five-year plan to retire, and then guess what? Covid hit,” Brownell said. “I said last year in 2020, ‘oh my god I can’t do this.’ I’m getting old, I can’t get any staff and it got worse with Covid. The business is open seven days a week and it’s rough on an old lady. I said I’ve got to sell it.”
Seeing Hatch’s continue to operate as a package store and gas station into the future was important to her. The business originally started as a garage in the early 1900s that sold kerosene in five-gallon containers for heating, and after the island got over its initial inclination to ban motor vehicles, the Hatch brothers started selling gasoline. Following the end of Prohibition, they acquired a beer and wine license.
“That was another goal of mine when I sold it, to see the tradition continue,” Brownell said, especially after “taking the small business that it was and turning it into the largest store on Nantucket. It’s been a challenge but a good challenge. I rose to that challenge to do the best I could and get the best deals for the customers. They’re local people and that’s who I try to please.”
One of Brownell’s longtime employees, Bob Grangrade, has assumed the role of manager of the package store, which became official last fall when the Select Board transferred the store’s license to him from Brownell. Grangrade, who has worked at Hatch’s since he was 16, is one of several longtime employees at the store including Robin Giles (40 years) and Jon Yarmy (15 years), who have worked with Brownell for decades. It’s a point of pride, she said, to have employees stick around for that long.
“So I must be doing something right,” Brownell said. “It does make me feel good.”
Todd Boling, the president and CEO of Island Energy Services, said back in September when the pending sale was first disclosed that customers of Hatch’s likely won’t notice the change of ownership.
One thing many customers were curious about was the fate of the “Wall of Fame” above the checkout area at Hatch’s, which displays the fake IDs seized from underage patrons going back decades. Brownell said the comical display wasn’t going anywhere, adding “I’m not taking that home with me!”
The Wall of Fame began in the early or mid-1980s – she couldn’t remember exactly – during a time when fake IDs were a little easier to spot.
“In the older days when we got a suspicious ID – and they were primitive then, they’re pretty good now – we would check an ID and say do you have another, and they wouldn’t and that’s flag No. 1,” Brownell said. “Then they’re trying to get it back, and we would say for you to buy alcohol, we have to call the police to check your ID and then suddenly they would have a boat to catch or an appointment to get to and they would leave. It turned into, let’s start posting them so it would be a deterrent and people would know we check IDs. Then we’d have parents who would come in and say ‘that’s my kids’s ID. Can I have it’?”
For her next chapter, Brownell said she’s looking forward to spending more time with her four grandchildren, and tending to her koi ponds on her property off Skyline Drive.
Last Friday morning, Brownell stepped behind the register at Hatch’s and completed her final sale at the package store. The brief interaction elicited smiles from her and the customer as they exchanged pleasantries, and that, she said, will be what she misses most as she steps away.
“What will I miss? The customers primarily, and I still enjoy it,” Brownell said. “You build a lot of relationships. When you have a happy customer, you have a loyal customer. I have customers I’ve known since the 1970s. It’s nice to make people happy.”
