Julie (left) and Jenny Gormley check out jams made by Irene Mannix in the General Store.

The General is back. And on July 4, as a crowd gathered on Mass Ave. for Harvard’s Independence Day parade, he was commanding a whole lot of attention. Queues at the two registers ran 10 deep.

“We sold at least 45 hot dogs in 20 minutes,” declared employee Alex Calderwood, with a nod to fellow worker James Jarvis.

“It was crazy at the coffee bar, and it was my first stint as a barista,” said Rebecca Fideli, crediting fellow barista Ryan Reynolds for doing yeoman’s duty at the shiny, costly machines that make coffee drinks with beans from Acton-based Terroir Coffee.

“The kids did a fabulous job keeping up,” said owner Adam Horowitz, referring to the crew of young people he had hired. “The college kids need paying summer jobs,” he said last week, explaining his decision to fill positions with local students.

Barista Shara Dunn.

Former owner of the General Store Joyce Garrick relaxes on the window bench in the new store

Lyn Horowitz (left) and David Reed, owner of the General Store in the 1950s when it was known as Kerley, Reed, and Bryant, stand in front of a photo of the old store.

Away from the coffee bar and hot dog counter, curious customers examined goods both fancy and plain. They sampled artisan bread with organic olive oil that is available in refillable bottles. They surveyed the Vermont-made cheese, ravioli, butter, and sausage that shared the shelves with glass bottles of Coke, milk, and juice. Others considered the M&Ms, jelly beans, and old-fashioned taffy, which stood in contrast to the gourmet Lake Champlain and Belgian chocolate. Locally-made jam sat beside ironstone and porcelain pitchers from Britain. A tube of U.S.A.-made toothpaste, an increasing rarity on store shelves everywhere, caught the eye of one observant browser.

People marched to the second floor to see artist Gail Martin’s exhibit of 315, five-inch-square paintings of everyday objects ranging from a hairdryer to a basin. Pam Cochrane of Harvard curated the exhibit with assistance from exhibit preparator George Clark and sponsorship from the Clark Gallery of Lincoln.

Though the July 4 scene resembled a grand opening, the store had opened quietly last week. In an e-mail to the Press, owner Horowitz said the low-key approach was deliberate.

“[We wanted] to iron out the bugs in the computer system,” he explained. Horowitz said he also wanted to test the high-tech refrigeration units, which were “designed specifically for the building so we did not have to put ugly and noisy compressors and condensers outside this historic building, but rather in the basement.”

He praised spouse and co-owner Lyn Horowitz for her painstaking efforts in selecting items for the store.

Last week, employee David Oliva sounded his own note of praise.

“I helped stock the shelves and learned what was unique about each item,” he said. Oliva expressed gratitude for his job, noting that summer jobs were in short supply.

Alex Calderwood, tending the register on a recent, quiet afternoon, offered unsolicited praise for the Terroir beans he was ringing up for a reporter. “This is very good coffee, and it’s responsibly traded, with no middleman,” he said, having also been briefed on the stock. Calderwood concluded the transaction with a most welcome phrase, one that seems close to obsolete in the retail world.

“Thank you,” he said