Freeport True Value Hardware owners Woody Woodbury and Kristin Bernhart are thrilled to be in line to carry the Stihl products that for so many years were sold at Goff’s Hardware, 11?2 miles away on Main Street in Yarmouth.

Woodbury said that his expanded hardware store, at 262 U.S. Route 1, will be offering the chain saws and all the other products that Stihl manufactures sometime in December or January. Woodbury uses a Stihl saw himself, and figures it will be a popular addition to his business.

Freeport True Value Hardware will have room for all the Stihl products, as it has expanded from 4,200 square feet to 6,500 by moving into some of the space left behind when J.L. Coombs closed its shoe outlet in the same building.

The closing of Goff’s last week, which did business at 90 Main St. in Yarmouth for 46 years, will have additional impact on Freeport True Value. Goff’s was known for its customer service. So Woodbury and Bernhart went out and hired Stacy Grindle, who had been at Goff’s for 21?2 years. Woodbury and Butch Goff, who has retired, have had many discussions regarding customer service, and Woodbury wants to get it right.

“The real story here is that we’re going to give people the same level of customer service that Butch did,” Woodbury said. “We want to offer the same atmosphere that Butch provided.”

Customer greetings always have mattered at Goff’s, which Goff and his father, Vernon Goff Sr., opened in 1969.

“We’d say, ‘How’s your wife doing?’ Or, ‘Are you feeling better?’” Goff said. “We saw three generations and we knew about them.”

Woodbury and Bernhart want that feel. That’s why they hired Grindle.

Grindle, who is from North Yarmouth, knows what Woodbury wants.

“We knew everybody and called everybody by name at Goff’s,” he said. “It was real ‘home-towny.’ It’s similar in Freeport but it’s bigger and the client base is bigger.”

Grindle said that Stihl products were a huge seller at Goff’s, and he expects the same to hold true at Freeport True Value Hardware. In addition to chain saws, Stihl manufactures trimmers, blowers, axes, wedges, helmets, safety gear, battery-operated lawnmowers and more.

“I’ve already got two blowers sold as soon as they come through the door,” Grindle said.

Woodbury said he is not taking over any of Goff’s inventory.

“I only contacted Butch and said I’d like to have that Stihl franchise,” Woodbury said. “He worked it out. This is a whole new product line for us, and some people consider it the best. It’s the only chain saw I’ve ever used.”