Shop Owner Retires After Hitting 1K Facebook Likes

George Privé had one last wish Tuesday before officially handing over the keys to the Hampton Falls Village Market: 1,000 Facebook "likes."

The store was stuck at 968 "likes" on Facebook — that is, until the above photo of owner Privé, 71, who has operated the Hampton Falls Village Market for 18 years, was posted early Tuesday afternoon.

Thanks to more than 530 "likes" and 70 shares, the page gained 40 "likes" within the first hour and ended the day over 1,100, surpassing the threshold Privé declared the store must reach before he could retire.

"Thank you for all the likes, over 1100 and counting," wrote Privé in a post. "Sure will miss the store and all of the friends I have made over the years."

Numerous residents shared messages on the Hampton Falls Village Market Facebook page to wish Privé well in retirement, including:

Mel Nickles George, you're the best but you can't retire! Lol you're the face of the general store!! Too many memories love, the Nickles

Mel Nickles But p.s enjoy the retirement that you definitely deserve thanks for the store and all the LAS memories, too

Bill Jones Good Luck George, HF is going to miss you

Eric J Gregg You deserve it George! But we'd miss you!

Best of luck, George.

Have a picture you'd like to see featured as our Photo of the Day? E-mail it to Kyle.Stucker@Patch.com!