Going Local!

I wonder how many Vermonters and tourists are aware of The West Townshend Country Store. For those who live or travel in the southern region of Vermont it is an institution. It quietly sets on Route 30, 6 miles northwest of Townshend. In the past it had become known for its large carved American Indian standing proudly on its uneven rough sawn planked front porch. It is a two story building, painted red with white trim framing a second story balcony which overlooks Route 30.

Recently I was traveling south on Route 30 on my way to Boston. As I approached West Townshend I was stopped by a police officer informing me that there was a fire up ahead and that the road was closed. Fearing the worst I asked him if the fire might be the country store. Unfortunately it was and the building apparently was fully involved in flames. I can't tell you the sadness I felt realizing that this store might very well cease to exist.

Upon my return from Boston, the next day, I drove by what I had thought would be the smoldering rubble of this wonderful store. Surprisingly it wasn't though the damage was extensive. The fire had been contained to the second story and roof and the downstairs portion, that housed the store and Post Office, suffered severe water damage. Frankly it looked like a tear- down to me.

Coincidentally I had just met the owner, Taffy Morgan, the week before at a Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores (VAICS) membership meeting. It was the first time she had attended one of our meetings. She was so enthusiastic about our organization that she signed up to be a member that day. VAICS is an organization started about one year ago formed to assist Vermont country stores with marketing, labor issues, cooperative buying, community partnering , financial restructuring, grant funding and basically anything that contributes to the overall health of our "Mom and Pops" and the communities they serve.

I called Taffy the next morning anticipating having a very sad conversation about her loss. She was surprisingly chipper and eager to reconstruct the store. She and her husband had just purchased the store in March of 2000 after it had been closed for roughly 5 years. They were aware of how vital this store was to the community and excited about the prospect of owning and running it for many years to come.

How unfortunate it would have been if this store had disappeared. It very well could have. In most cases it doesn't take a fire to close a country store. They are closing all of the time due to lack of community support, pressure from strip mall development, convenience stores and "big box" superstores. Almost 100% of all independent country stores operate on a shoestring. They do not have the income to hire and retain qualified help, purchase products at a reasonable price, advertise effectively or basically do what all of their larger competitors can do. But, these stores continue to operate under adverse conditions. The operators champion the cause of community service and hang in there. Certainly there are those who believe that country storeowners make pretty good money. Well, the truth of the matter is that they don't.

In West Townshend, the Morgans bought the store because it was and should always be available for the citizens of that community. Taffy said, "We are simply the stewards of this store. You can't own it, it belongs to the community." Exactly the sentiments I have about my store and I'll bet that feeling is consistent with most of the "Mom and Pop" owners in Vermont.

By the way, as the store burned many neighbors, friends and firemen rushed to remove the contents of the Post Office. Conveniently they lugged the mail across the street and stacked it in Bev Coughlin's garage. Bev has been the postmistress for this community, of roughly 500, for approximately 20 years.

Lately the United States Post Office (USPS) has been moving out of small villages and downtown settings claiming that in many cases it isn't cost effective. Thankfully that isn't the case for West Townshend and in fact the USPS is allowing the "Garage Post Office" to continue until the store is rebuilt.

More and more of our village country stores are at risk of closing. They aren't all perfect "formula stores" like most chain operations. They are community stores, not convenience stores. Sometimes housed in historical buildings and always critical to the rural lifestyle most of us enjoy. Shopping with these small independents is of the utmost importance. Community stores are in most cases the anchor businesses in the majority of our small villages.

Slowly our Vermont village culture is evaporating. Most of us live here because we enjoy our rural lifestyle. Naturally supermarkets are where most of us do our major food shopping but in between those shopping sprees we must support our local economies or we will lose them. "Use it or lose it" couldn't be more real in this situation. Once our small shops are gone we will be left with no choice but to do our local shopping miles away in larger supermarkets, convenience stores and big box retailers that are faceless and soulless as Ben Cohen, co-owner of Ben and Jerry's, recently stated.

About two weeks ago one of our VAICS member stores was notified by its milk supplier that it could no longer stop at the store unless it met a minimum order of almost twice what its milk sales were. In this case it was the only milk supplier that would service this store. You see, it is the same old story. The big guys buy up the little guys and eventually little guys no longer exist. Do we want that?

It is not cost effective for the vendor to stop at this store? Simply abandon that community and allow it to eventually disintegrate? I say it is cost effective! Some of their accounts are huge, and some are small. You take the good with the bad and good business people generally figure out a way to live with their loss leaders.

If all of us do not buy our milk, eggs, bread etc. locally, we may be shooting ourselves in the foot. It is not our small local shop owners who are doing a poor job stocking their shelves. We are not buying enough from out independents to prevent the eventuality of store vendors pulling out and leaving our stores with empty shelves.

Shopping in your local "Community Store" is a partnership. No, it isn't always the best price but someday it might very well be if we stick with them and help them along the way.

Additionally, this partnership isn't solely with food stores. It applies to pharmacies, hardware stores, appliance stores and more.

Money spent in town stays in town whereby money spent with large chain operations often leaves the local community and eventually drains the community of its economic strength.

As a footnote to this milk situation, a small local dairy, that has survived the conglomerate cut, has agreed to go out of its route delivery area and supply the store. The larger, out of state dairy company has agreed to sit down with VAICS to try to resolve this problem and hopefully prevent similar situations from happening again.