Cumberland Farms Celebrates 75 Years

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The convenience store industry stands strong at 150,000-plus locations today, and a few retailers have watched the retail channel grow from its infancy. Cumberland Farms, which is celebrating its 75th year in the business, is one of them.

As the story goes, Vasilios and Aphrodite Haseotes started it all in Cumberland, R.I., with nothing but a cow and a dream in 1939. Within six years, the couple had a dairy farm providing more than a thousand quarts of fresh milk a day. But the Haseotes family did not stop there.

Looking for a better way to serve their customers, they opened the first Cumberland Farms store in Bellingham, Mass., in 1957 and in just three short years, Cumberland Farms locations began popping up throughout the Northeast section of the United States.

The retail pioneers began adding other products -- beverages, groceries, and health and beauty items –- to the mix in 1962, becoming New England's first true convenience store retailer.

Today, that cow and dream has grown to a nearly 600-store chain in the Northeast and Florida.

To celebrate the milestone, the Framingham-based retailer is holding a free gas sweepstakes that will award one lucky customer the grand prize of free gas for a year.

Seventy-five other winners will each receive 75 gallons of free gas at Cumberland Farms. All prizes will be awarded in the form of a gift card. The contest runs through Sept. 2, with the winners drawn on Sept. 15.

Customers are automatically entered when they use their Cumberland Farms SmartPay card to make a purchase at any participating Cumberland Farms store during the sweepstakes period during regular store hours. Customers can also enter by mail without any purchase necessary. Mail-in entries are limited to one per person.

Customers are limited to 20 entries per person per day regardless of the method of entry, according to the company.