The story
Thirty years of the same product
Shoreline Seafood, Inc. first appears on the federal motor carrier record on 2 May 1994. Three decades later it is still the same company, working out of Queenstown on the Eastern Shore and selling the same product three different ways.
For years the front door was a retail store on Route 3 in Gambrills, a white building with a lighthouse tower on the corner, and people still say in the comments on their Facebook page that they miss standing in line at it. That store is closed now. The seafood business behind it never stopped.
What it became instead is three things that feed each other, run now from the other side of the Bay Bridge. A market at Queenstown, open seven days, selling live and steamed crabs and a full retail case. A wholesale operation supplying the trade off its own trucks. And the feast business, which is the one most people book: a trailer with steamers on it that turns up at company parties, fundraisers, Legion posts, clubs and lodges and cooks on site.
It is the same crab in all three. That is the whole advantage.
The Gambrills store on Route 3. Closed now, and still the picture on their Facebook page.
What changed, and what did not
The store closed. The seafood did not.
When Shoreline announced the retail store was closing, the comments filled up with people saying some version of the same thing: that they had not realised, and that they were glad the catering was still going.
That is worth saying plainly here, because it is the single most common misunderstanding about this business. Shoreline did not shut. It moved, and it kept the parts that travel: the market, the wholesale side, and the feasts.
How it works now
A working business, run by the people who work it
The trucks are theirs and the trailer is theirs, on their own motor carrier authority. There is no layer between the company that takes your booking and the people who turn up with the steamers.
For a feast that is the part that decides whether the day goes well, because almost everything that can go wrong on the day is logistics.
What people say
Five out of five on Google
Fresh, delicious crab and a very kind owner.Google · from the review summary on their Business Profile
Great crabs, terrific people, and totally worth it! Got a half bushel of live crabs for a great price and will definitely be coming back.
Best seafood around, good prices and great customer service!
Top notch seafood great prices and awesome customer service.
Tell us the date. We will bring the rest.
Full service on site, anywhere we can get a truck to. Call and we will talk through the headcount, the date and what you want steaming when your people walk in.