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Monkton General Store |
We are open 6am to 8pm Monday through Friday, Saturday 7am to 8pm, Sunday 8am to noon.
To show our new look: Lower Shelving! Brighter look! More Vermont products! And we again received the Addison County Responsible Retailer Recognition Award, which we have received annually since 1999.
The first store was built in the 1800s and survived for nearly a hundred years until it burned down in the early 1900s. The original owners sold the land and bought a farm in Charlotte. Wesley Little was the owner when the store was rebuilt in the 1900s, and the Burritts took over from Wesley in 1960. They sold it to the Austins in 1978, who sold it to us in 1985. The store was known as IGA, Burritt's Store, and Monkton General Store among other names.
When we bought the store in 1985, it was run down and needed a lot fo work. First we updated th electricity, then we added a bigger entrance to the building. There was only one cooler, so we added several more in addition to putting in a new floor, adding siding, and replacing all the scales so they could weigh over 99 cents a pound. A new cash register was also put in to the replace the old one, which only rang up 99 cents at a time.
The building is sound and up-to-date after 20 years of various improvements and updates. We replaced the shelving, painted the walls, and added a deli and fresh meat case. We put in new gas tanks, added kerosene and diesel, brought in beta tape rentals, and updated over the years to VHS tapes and now DVDs. We have had to replace the compressor, a furnace, fix the chimney, put on a new roof, pave the driveway, and as of 2005 replace the septic. In 1998, we had to make a decision of what to do with the deli since we are having a hard time hiring help and when the flood in 1998 cause us to close down our deli, we didn't open it back up. It is now time to open it again, but we have not made that move just yet. We have gone through many employees as they grew and moved on over the years. We are so happy when they come back to visit us in later years.
Jim has been cutting meat for over 45 years and cuts the best meat cuts around. He knows the best grades to buy, and is one of the few that can still cut beef from the hoof. We take special orders for people who still like to fill their freezer in the fall or for those who have a big party or cookout.
Another specialty of ours is to find the product that no one carries anymore. If someone needs it I try my best to find it (sometimes having to buy a whole case to get it). People like coming in our store just to see if I carry something that most stores our size would not have.
We do our best to make sure we use Vermont products. Some of the products we carry are Vermont maple syrup, Cabot cheese (all flavors and sizes), Monument Farms milk, Mary's donuts, Vermont wines and beers, Vermont-made greeting cards made by a person in Lincoln, Vermont, and other such things.
We take pride in making sure people get where they are trying to go. I have drawn lots of maps over the years, and used a lot of trees doing it! We help people get where they need to go with maps, asking other people, calling the town clerk, even calling the area where they're trying to go, or using the internet. We help the new people in town with where to get & go - trash, snow removal, lawn mowers, woodcutters, Monkton Town Offices, Fire Department, School, etc. We are the information highway for Monkton without the gossip! We are Jim & Penny Cyr, Daughters Kim, Becky, Katie; Sons-in-law Alan and Craig; Granddaughters Hannah, Tovah, and Shelby; Dog Willow; and Rabbits Griffin and Phinex!
Our store hours keep us from doing traditional community service, like working at bottle drives or book sales, but we make up for this in other ways. It's really the little things we do that are our community service. We talk to companies like Ben & Jerry's for donations to school trips, we donate flowers and money to funerals, we donate money to charitable foundations, and we put out donation jars for families who have recently lost their homes to fire. Not all community service is money, however. Sometimes little things such as bringing groceries to an elderly person who can't get to the store can make a difference. How many big chain stores do you know that would donate a spoonful of spice from their home stash for a cook who was short when the store was out? Rides home, jumpstarting vehicles, even serving gas to those who can't do it themselves, are some of the things we do for our community.
In closing, we love people of all walks of life. Our town is growing fast and we are just trying to keep up.
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