Vermonters Remain Loyal to the Country Store
Why are these shops invulnerable to Walmart and Amazon?
A Vermont country store may look just like the type of place your grandma wanted to stop on the last family road trip. But if you pull aside the curtain of quirky small-town treasures, you’ll find that country stores have a rich history as community centers.
As Walmart takes over the landscape, the Shelburne Country Store in Vermont is a tenacious holdout reinforcing the culture of the region, with items such as anachronistic dye tins from the 1800s, clove chewing gum that drinkers used during Prohibition to mask the smell of alcohol, and, of course, maple syrup products galore. Buffalo Springfield music plays over the speakers. Then a little Abba. There is a year-round Christmas room.
Since this store opened in 1859, it has experienced many lives as a gas station, a cigar store, a lamp repair shop, a chocolate fudge destination, and, most recently, a tourist attraction to load up on Vermont confectionaries. But with corner store runs being replaced by Amazon shopping carts, how are New England country stores still going strong?
