Noank General Store to open circa July 1st, 2026

Jeffry Thompson stands for a portrait at the soon-to-open Noank General Store on Pearl Street on June 11, 2026. (Sarah Gordon/The Day)Noank General Store to open July 12By Written by Kimberly Drelich
Day Staff WriterThe DayPublished:Jun 19, 2026 4:20 PM

Groton — Noank resident Jeffry Thompson plans to open the Noank General Store with “a little bit of everything” people may need.

Thompson said there will be grocery items, toiletries, pet toys and collars, lawn and garden supplies, bird seed, winter salt and sand, potting soil, books, and coffee and lattes, among other items, and he’ll see what works.

He is working on a menu, with items such as grinders and sandwiches, to add later this summer.

Thompson said he’s received positive feedback about his efforts to open the small community store at 17 Pearl St.

“Everybody loves it,” he said. “Everybody’s helpful. Everybody’s hoping it works.”

Growing up in Michigan, Thompson said, his favorite store was a general store. He has fond memories of going with his father to the store that had dark oak counters and candy jars and sold items from frying pans to groceries.

Thompson, who has a background in the trades and sailing, ran a lawn and garden center for six years on Martha’s Vineyard.

Thompson had his eye on the building for 20 years and knew the building owners, Stephen and Geoffrey Jones. When the spot became available, Thompson decided to open.

“I’ve always considered Carson’s as the soul of Noank, and this store is the heart,” Thompson said. “The two have been here together for, well, close to 100 years, so I want it to be a community gathering place to stop.”

Thompson, lived in Noank on and off for 30 years and said the spot, which most recently was Palmer’s Provisions and Pizza, has a long history as various grocery and food stores and said it originally was a company store for the R. & J. Palmer Shipyard.

The store also has historical touches: a model of a boat — the Emma C. Berry, built by Palmer Shipyard in the Mystic Seaport Museum collection — as well as an old-fashioned Hobart coffee grinder and a 1930s grocery conveyor and scale from the Universal Food Store, which operated in the building from 1947 to 2011.

Thompson plans to sell a variety of books for children, books by local authors, and some on sailing and gardening.

He has heard from people that big grocery stores are too commercialized; they prefer to shop at a small, local spot where they find the basics.

The store is near a post office and liquor store in the same parking lot, so the area is a kind of “city center.”

“I’m hoping for a good community gathering place,” Thompson said, “a safe spot where people can be comfortable, read the newspaper, read a book, have a coffee, and get some lunch.”

k.drelich@theday.com (edited by Ed Johnson)