ATHOL – As the New Year ushered itself in earlier this week, it also brought with it a new owner at S&S Appliance of Athol

The retail establishment, which had been owned and operated by Mark Duguay for decades, is now under the ownership of Athol native Mark Armentrout, a 1986 graduate of Athol High School. Jan. 2 was his first official day as the new owner.

“I’ve known the Duguay family for probably 30 years or more,” said Armentrout. “I started playing cards in a card league that Mark was involved in. My wife was there, and we started talking about the store, when he was going to retire, and one thing led to another. I started working at the store, and here we are.”

Mark and his wife Jennifer live in Athol. They have five grown children. Asked how his wife reacted when he decided to buy the business, Armentrout responded, “It was really her idea. I’m 55 now, and getting to where the aches and pains of doing carpentry everyday weren’t going away, so we decided maybe it was in my best interest to do something different.”

Armentrout said he spent more than a year and a half working at the store, learning the ropes from Duguay. Having worked as a carpenter for about three decades, he said retail is a new venture.

“There was quite a bit to learn,” he said. “I think if you don’t learn something new every day then you’re doing something wrong. So, I’ll probably forever be learning. But, yes, there was a lot to learn right from the start.”

One of the main lessons from the previous owner is how an independent businessman can compete with the likes of Lowe’s and Home Depot.

“We’re fortunate enough to buy from a buying group, which technically I’m part owner of,” said Armentrout. “It’s like a co-op, so that gives us a lot of buying power all over the New England area. In most cases, because of that buying power, we can compete with the Lowe’s’ and the Home Depots.”

One area where Armentrout feels S&S can beat the big box stores is service.

“Service is a huge part of our business,” he said. “The big box stores, quite frankly, will often call us once in a while and ask us to go service their products. We do have our own in-house service people. It’s a question often asked by potential customers; do we service what we sell? And the answer is ‘yes.’”

While there has been a change at the top, Armentrout, points out that there have been none made in store personnel.

“We’ve held onto everybody,” he said.

Among the major brands carried by S&S Appliance are Whirlpool, Frigidaire, General Electric, Maytag, Electrolux, Amana, Speed Queen and KitchenAid.

Armentrtout said once he gets settled, he plans on making some upgrades both internally and externally at the Main Street store.

S & S Appliance is located at 447 Main St., in Athol and open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.