“From cigars to chocolate, there goes the Greyhound bus.”

So says Leonard Seagren, co-owner of the Federal Cigar store which, until May 1, sold bus tickets to Greyhound passengers in Portsmouth. According to Seagren, he took over the ticket agency in 1986 from Harry Jarvis, whose family had been selling tickets for generations.

Now the responsibility has shifted to Mainely Gourmet, a chocolate and candy shop located at 55 Hanover St. The store’s two chocolatiers, Janice Wojciak and Darlene Inks, will now be ticket agents as well, operating both businesses from the same counter. The buses, which formerly stopped in Market Square, now pick up and drop off passengers across the street from Mainely Gourmet, near the main entrance of the parking garage on Hanover Street.

Though the city has turned two formerly metered parking spots into a bus stop, extending the no-parking zone to fit the large Greyhounds, the buses do not fit as easily as they did in the Square. The situation has already led to a number of traffic jams. Janice Wojciak attributes this problem to the construction being done on the street, rather than to the location of the bus stop.
“It is a problem on busy days,” she says, “because people are coming in and out of the parking garage. Once the construction is done it will be less congested.”

The construction will result in other improvements as well. The city is planning brick crosswalks, benches and period lighting, more closely matching its mood to the rest of the town.

Both Seagren and Wojciak think the move is a positive change. Though Wojciak says that people are still a bit confused, and some simply don’t like change, she says that business has improved somewhat due to the increased awareness of her store, which is open and selling tickets from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Tickets are also available online at www.greyhound.com.

Seagren says the change has no effect on his business. “They were two unrelated businesses that ran out of the same place, and buses and chocolate are still unrelated. The concept of providing necessary services continues.”