LIVINGSTON (AP) — What do you do on Thanksgiving Day when you run out of whipped cream and the only grocery store in town is closed?

This is a problem that has faced Gardiner for many years. 

“We can always run down and grab something” even if the store is closed, Gardiner Market owner Rebecca Demaree said recently.

But what if you don’t own the store?

This year, Demaree and her husband, Scott, put a selection of last-minute items outside the store’s entrance in coolers along with a secure donation box. People were asked to take what they needed and pay on the honor system. 

Gardiner resident Dan Chapman stopped at the store on Thanksgiving Day, hoping to pick up some whipped cream on his way to a dinner taking place at a family member’s home in Belgrade. He thought the idea of letting people pick up supplies and pay on the honor system was “pretty darn neat.”

He met up with a couple of hunters in the store’s parking lot. One of them approached the coolers.

“He wandered over, incredulous,” Chapman said. “Nobody could believe it.”

Chapman said there was milk, bread, eggs, whipping cream, “everything you run out of on Thanksgiving” in the coolers. 

“You should have seen the looks on those out-of-stater hunters’ faces,” he laughed. 

Rebecca Demaree, reached by phone on Dec. 1, said this is the first Thanksgiving they’ve offered groceries on the honor system. The store is closed only three days a year — on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. 

Asked how the receipts were, Demaree said they were probably “a little bit shy” of breaking even, but added making money wasn’t the point — giving back to the community was more important. 

She said it would have been worth it even if only one person made use of the service. 

The Gardiner Market’s Facebook post announcing the service received a lot of comments like “Awesome!” and “You rock!” from locals and former residents. 

Chapman said he told everyone he saw about the market’s generosity.

“I felt good all the way to Belgrade just because of their act,” Chapman said.