Classic LaVerdiere’s Halloween Commercials Every Mainer Remembers

Now THIS is old-school spooky, Maine!

Any old-school Mainer remembers LaVerdiere’s Super Drug Stores. At its peak, the company operated more than 70 stores throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

LaVerdiere’s began in 1922 in Waterville, Maine, starting out as a small newsstand and soda fountain before eventually becoming a full-service drug store.

Aside from the pharmacy, the stores sold general items, as well as toys and Halloween and Christmas decorations. In the 1980s, some LaVerdiere’s locations even featured an arcade called Action Family Arcade. The company was purchased by Rite Aid in 1994.

I spent many a teenage afternoon there at the Action Family Arcade. We always had a plan: Walk from the Tree Streets in Bangor, head up Broadway, hit LaVerdiere’s arcade, fill the air hockey machine with about twenty bucks’ worth of quarters, proceed to do battle and annoy everyone else in the room, then walk up Broadway all the way to Dairy Queen.

Once we got there, we’d fill the jukebox with even more quarters, playing the hits of the day, then order a “Full Meal Deal,” which consisted of a Brazier burger, fries, a soda, and, best of all, a hot fudge sundae.

I also have another fond memory of LaVerdiere’s because one of my childhood buddies, Mark, worked at the downtown location when he was a junior at Bangor High School. Boy, did we give him a hard time whenever he put that lame smock on.

LaVerdiere’s was always famous for its Halloween and Christmas TV ads, and through the magic of YouTube, we found two spooky ads from 1989 and 1992.