FORT RESOLUTION - After 33 years of running the store, Stan Hunter of Stan's Quick Stop Convenience Store in Fort Resolution has decided the time is right to sell.

"I'm getting a little bit too old, eh? I've kind of had it," said Hunter.

Stan's Quick Stop in 2007. The store was originally made of log, then shiplap, plywood, and finally metal. An extension was built on the store in the 1940s and again in the 1970s and 1980s. Stan Hunter has put the landmark business up for sale. - photo courtesy of Stan Hunter

The store has had only three owners and four names since it was built in the early 1930s. The original owner of the store was George Pinsky who built it as a trading post and named it Pinsky's General Store.

In the early 1960's, Pinsky sold it to Jimmy MacPherson who changed the name to MacPherson's General Store.

It was during MacPherson's time as shop owner that Hunter came to the Canadian Arctic. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Hunter travelled to Canada with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was stationed in Coppermine, Holman, Gjoa Haven, Spence Bay, Cambridge Bay, Wrigley, and finally Fort McPherson.

While stationed in Fort McPherson in 1974, Hunter received a call from his brother Ewan, who at the time was Bay manager in Fort Resolution, to say that the general store was for sale.

After years of travelling, Hunter settled in Fort Resolution to run the store with his brother, naming it Hunter Brother's Store.

"Back then and still even now, it's a nice place to stay," Hunter reflected.

When the Hunters took ownership, they expanded into hardware and clothing. After a few years they built a Laundromat and later opened a restaurant. Over the years, demand for these goods decreased. Today, Stan's Quick Stop is simply a convenience store.

Hunter also bought furs until the mid-1980s when the Department of Renewable Resources starting to give big advances to trappers.

"I really enjoyed buying fur," Hunter said. He would send the furs to auction houses in Edmonton and Vancouver.

Hunter and his brother worked together until the early 1980s when they decided to break up the partnership and focus on different properties.

Stan's Quick Stop is open seven days a week, until 11 p.m.

"It means if they (people from town) forget something in Hay River, like they always do, that they can get it at the store," Hunter said.

"Without the store, I don't think we'd have anywhere else to go after eight o'clock," said Fort Resolution finance controller Ruth Mandeville. She worked there as a teenager and one of her daughters worked there for three years.

"He was the best," Mandeville said when asked what type of boss Hunter was. He taught many in the community how to run the store and pump gas, she said.

Hunter had the store on the market last year and had two or three offers. One was more or less confirmed, but the deal fell through. This time, Hunter has decided to sell through a real estate agent.

"You wonder what you're going to do afterwards," Hunter said of his impending retirement. "It's kind of a confusing time." Whatever happens, Hunter plans to stay in Fort Resolution.