N.S. family marks end of an era with last day at R & D Seafood Saturday

WOONSOCKET/NORTH SMITHFIELD – R & D Seafood, a community staple for fresh, local, fish on Smithfield Road, just over the border in Woonsocket since 1968, will close its doors forever on Saturday, Sept. 7, co-owner Ron Charest said.

The past couple of weeks since he and his co-owner and brother Marc Charest announced the closing have been hectic, Ron said.

“We have been so, so busy,” Ron said. “We aren’t closing because business is bad, our bodies are just done.”

The brothers’ parents, Raymond and Doris Charest of North Smithfield, started the business in 1968, naming it R & D after their first names. The building R & D has occupied in the years since was once home to Picard Motors and a plumbing supply store before the seafood business moved in.

When Raymond and Doris retired in 1990, after decades of selling, “the freshest seafood in the Blackstone Valley,” Ron and Marc took over. Ron noted that many family members worked at the store over the years, including his two sons and his wife, Carol.

“My son Tommy, he gives us a week of his own vacation time every year so we can go on vacation,” Charest said.

Ron and Carol Charest live close to the store in North Smithfield, in a home also very close to where Raymond and Doris raised their family. The Charest roots are strong in North Smithfield, as Carol is a former North Smithfield Middle School teacher, and Ron’s sister-in-law, Chris Charest, is a retired former postmaster at the Slatersville Post Office, he said.

“We’re real townies,” Charest said.

Charest reflected this week on the years he’s spent working at the store, recalling the time there was a fire in 2010, and the store had to be closed for five to six months while they worked out of an office nearby. The pandemic year, he said, was their best year in business.

“It’s so much hard work,” he said. “And I’m 70, my body hurts. But retail is the best part.”

“I love it,” said Charest. “I’ll miss our customers. I’ll miss the people. They’ve been bringing in gifts and bottles of wine this week.”

Still, Charest said, he is ready to retire.

“We are gonna relax,” he said. “We have never been able to travel.”

Five minutes past opening on the second-to-last day of his career, there were already three customers in the store, the phone was ringing continuously, and Charest got back to work.