HAMPDEN – Though it was raining and the store hadn’t yet officially opened its doors, Sunday morning found dozens of shoppers lined up outside Graves’ Supermarket on Western Avenue waiting to get their first look at the grocery items inside.

According to the store’s owners, people began arriving as much as 11/2 to 2 hours before its scheduled 8 a.m. opening. Many were on hand for the official flag raising ceremony conducted at the store by members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

For many shoppers, it had been a long time since they could do their grocery shopping locally. The community of more than 6,300 residents has been without a supermarket since Future Foods closed on Nov. 4, 1995, when its owners sold the building to the Rite-Aid drugstore chain.

“I’m so happy I could cry,” said Diane Bergey of Hampden, as others standing in line nodded in agreement. Her husband Stephen, owner of Hampden Hardware, also was pleased with the latest addition to the town’s commercial base. He said the presence of a grocery store in town might help keep local shopping dollars in town.

For almost seven years, local families have had to travel to supermarkets in nearby Bangor and Brewer to do their weekly or monthly grocery shopping at roundtrip distances ranging from 10 to 20 miles for Hampden residents, even more for those in some of the surrounding communities.

Two years ago, however, Graves’ acquired property adjacent to BARCO Federal Credit Union, setting in motion plans to build a 30,000 square foot store here.

The Hampden supermarket, the fifth for the Aroostook County-based Graves family, is one of two Graves locations that offers a pharmacy. The company, founded in the 1930s by William Graves and his four sons, also has stores in Presque Isle, Bar Harbor, Camden and Dover-Foxcroft. The pharmacy is a joint venture with the owners of Mars Hill Pharmacy, located in the town by that name near Presque Isle.

Several members of the Graves family were on hand to greet customers Sunday, handing out free grocery items to customers walking through the doors for the first time.

According to Robert Graves, president of the company, the store currently employs 93 people, about 40 percent of them full time. Michael Bennett is manager of the new store. Michael Underwood is assistant manager.

“I’m grateful because my husband promised me he’d do the grocery shopping when this store opened,” said Kathy Ellingwood of Winterport, who was among the crowd who came to check out the new store on opening day.

She and her sister predicted that the store would draw customers from Newburgh, Dixmont and other communities around Hampden.