Friday, March 23, 2007
Staff photo by John Patriquin
Victor Gorelov stocks shelves with Russian cooking oil at Medeo European Food and Deli in Westbrook. Russian seafood is among the many items sold at the store, which Victor and Luba Gorelov opened in 2005.
Staff photo by John Patriquin
WESTBROOK - As she restocked shelves with Russian food items, such as canned cod livers, caviar and sausage made from beef tongue, Luba Gorelov explained that her grocery store's biggest problem is a basic one.
"We need more customers," she said with a sigh. "We don't have enough customers."
The Main Street store, Medeo European Food and Deli, will be celebrating its second anniversary this May. But Gorelov is finding that the growth of business, which caters to emigrants from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, is limited by the small size of the immigrant population.
The store grosses around $18,000 a month, she said, but her expenses are nearly that much. Gorelov said she earned more money cleaning houses. That was her job before she and her husband, Victor Gorelov, opened the business using a home equity loan.
Luba Gorelov, 52, said cleaning houses was hard work for a woman her age, and she'd rather run her own business. Moreover, she has faith her business will grow as more people learn about it.
"Every time a new customer walks in," she said, "it gives me hope."
The Gorelovs' story is a common one for immigrants in Maine, said Jennifer Sporzynski, director of StartSmart, a business counseling program that helps refugees and immigrants start their own businesses.
When the first wave of an immigrant group moves to an area, she said, some families create businesses that cater to the needs of the group. There are at least six Asian markets in Portland now, for example, and four African markets.
She said it's hard for these businesses to prosper in Maine because the immigrant population is still relatively low, and their incomes are also low.
"In Maine, it's pretty challenging to make these businesses, like grocery stores and clothing stores, super successful," she said. "People can scrape by."
She said many immigrants would rather run their own businesses, even if the profits are slim, because it gives them more dignity than the menial jobs that are often their only other option.
The Gorelovs' Westbrook store is thought to be the only one of its kind in Maine. There are more than 12 Russian grocery stores in Massachusetts, where the Russian population is much larger, generally wealthier and better-established.
Many of the Russians in Massachusetts are Jews who were part of an immigration wave that began the 1970s.
The Gorelovs, like many of the Russians in the Portland area, are Baptists who emigrated from Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in western Asia. In the 1980s, Catholic Relief Services settled a group of about 125 Russian Baptists, many from Kazakhstan, in Portland. They had gained refugee status because they had been persecuted in Kazakhstan, a largely Muslim country.
Luba Gorelov's brother immigrated to Portland about 17 years ago, and she and her family immigrated in 1997.
She believes that about 5,000 Russian immigrants are now living in southern Maine. A 2005 U.S. Census estimated that there are 18,000 Russian speakers in the state.
About 60 percent of the products in the Gorelovs' store are Russian; the rest are Eastern European. The perishable products, such as the sausages and yogurt drinks, have Russian labels but are made in the United States. The candies and canned and dry goods are imported from Russia through New York City-based distributors.
The shop's shelves are crowded with more than a dozen varieties of canned fish and pickled vegetables of all sorts. The freezer is filled with handmade meat dumplings called "pelmeni," potato-filled dumplings called "vereniki" and a yogurt drink called "kiefer."
A popular item is "halva," a crumbly confection made from sunflower seed oil. A half-dozen Russian-language newspapers from New York are displayed next to the cash register.
Many customers come to the store Wednesday afternoon after Victor Gorelov returns from his weekly trip to Boston with his van full of fresh food.
Most of the store's customers are foreign-born, such as Agnieszka Troczynska, 25, who emigrated from Poland nine years ago.
"When I come here, I feel like I'm back home," she said.
Trista Stewart, 23, who is not Russian, said she finds the food exotic. "It's not the regular American stuff," she said. "It's a little taste of culture."
Luba Gorelov works at the store full time, and her husband also holds down another job, at a sheet metal company in Gorham. They have five children. Their four youngest, ages 16 to 21, also help out at the store.
Before she immigrated to the United States, Luba Gorelov sold flowers at an outdoor market. She said racketeers often harassed her and demanded money or flowers. Sometimes they smashed her vases.
She said she appreciates the strong legal system in the United States.
Her daughter Inna, 19, who works three days a week at the store, said she admires what her parents have accomplished in America. She said they have taught her something about running a business.
"It's all about taking risks," she said.
Staff Writer Tom Bell can be reached at 791-6369 or at
Reader comments
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Good luck to the Gorelov family and their business. If they aren't financially prospering yet, perhaps they can take comfort in that they are indeed bringing a little of the homeland to other Russians and Eastern Europeans. report abuse
I also welcome immigrants from all countries - from Russia, Ireland, Somalia, Mexico, and all points in between. Immigrants have always been the backbone of this country and help make this the greatest place to live.
It's unfortunate that some citizens of our great land forget our immigrant heritage. report abuse
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