Facebook COO Gives Props To Old Port Store While Visiting Maine

The Chief Operations Officer of Facebook was visiting Maine last week and was so impressed with an Old Port business she visited that she shared their story on her Facebook page.

Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook as the Chief Operating Officer in 2008 after a stint at Google and in 2012 was named as one of The World's 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine. She's kind of a big deal.

So you can only imagine the surprise on the face of The Maine Souvenir Shop owner Kevin Ouellette when Sandberg walked in. Oulette opened the Maine Souvenir Shop right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic after his photography and wedding planning business took a nosedive. He has been so successful with it, that he has had to expand twice since then. The key to his success is likely due to the fact that The Maine Souvenir Shop only sells items created by local artists and leveraged both Facebook and Instagram to do it. That's probably what really got Sandberg's attention.

When Sandberg walked into The Maine Souvenir Shop, she was impressed, like all of us are, that a business can get its start during the pandemic and survive it after so many other long-time businesses weren't able to weather the storm.

She posted a selfie that Oueltte took with her and a friend visiting the shop and tagged The Maine Souvenir Shop as well. That's bound to get even more attention for the store!

Congrats to Kevin Ouellette for turning a crappy situation into a profitable one.