It's the classic fantasy. You ditch the rat race, move to Vermont, and open a country store. There's dramatic potential, for sure, the stuff of endless movies and sitcoms. But most dreamers recognize such scenarios for what they are - fiction. Besides, such opportunities hardly fly through the door.
Until now.
Available: one authentic 19th-century Vermont country store, tucked in a mountain hamlet drawn from a tourism department's brochure. The store and attached homestead have been updated, but vintage details were preserved: old wooden post office slots and countertops, shelving that reaches to the ceiling, benches, barrels, a potbellied stove, jugs, and a cash register dating from the 1940s.
The Vermont organization that inherited the property and invested $300,000 in repairs is now looking for someone to reopen the W.E. Pierce store to supply residents with the basics.
There's more: It's free. Really. All they ask is that you remit a portion of profits that you may one day eke out - if you ever do.
"It is up in the mountains next to the Long Trail and the [Calvin] Coolidge State Forest," said Paul Bruhn, executive director of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. "Ideally, it will serve the community with basic goods, but whoever runs it may need to cater or develop a mail order or sell prepared foods. It's not meant to be a tourist store, but more of a secondary store."
The property is at the intersection of country roads that form North Shrewsbury, a burg some 600 residents strong 10 miles southeast of Rutland. Dating from 1865, the store had been in the Pierce family since 1914, selling everything from harness parts to buggy whips. Marjorie Pierce was the last to run it. It closed in 1993, when she retired at age 90. She deeded it to the nonprofit group with the stated hope that it reopen. She died in 2001.
This is an unusual assignment for the Trust, which typically helps people preserve buildings and other treasured resources of Vermont's past, and doesn't get involved in business deals. But by getting someone to lease and reopen the store, the trust would be able to fulfill its mission of preserving a way of life.
"It is absolutely new to us, so we're asking the locals to help," said Ann Cousins, a Trust field representative who is overseeing the property.
The organization has already received 20 proposals, and after an open house earlier this month about 25 locals signed up to explore running the store as a co-op with a focus on local products.
A walk-through of the property will be held Wednesday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Proposals are due March 14. In evaluating submissions, the Trust said it will consider applicants' management abilities, whether the proposed venture is well-defined and viable, and the business's effect on the organization as well as the community. The winning applicant does not have to live in the adjacent home.
The property has a new well and new heating, upgraded chimneys, septic and wiring systems, roofs, and porches. Unsightly components have been removed. The home has retained many of the Pierces' belongings: Oriental carpets, crocheted bedspreads, and Marjorie's old typewriter. The two-story Cape has a den, kitchen, bath, and two bedrooms downstairs. Two upstairs rooms are too small for anything but storage, Cousins said.
As dreamy as this sounds, the reality is that running a store is hard work.
"It's rewarding and all that, but you will burn out," said Greg Henry, whose father ran a Rutland mom-and-pop store for 12 years. The father and son have also brokered the sale of more than 90 convenience stores. He said most operators average seven to 12 years before giving up.
"There are still people who want to get out of the rat race, but here's the thing: They don't want to take a major downgrade of their lifestyle," Henry said. "The best that the operator is going to achieve in that store is subsistence."
Another problem, he said, is that the store has been closed for so long that residents are in the habit of shopping in Rutland, where many of them commute to work as well.
"If it started up again, can it be done? Yeah. But it's a tall order."
That's how Grace Brigham, a retired schoolteacher who has lived in Shrewsbury all her life, sees it, too. "It's a beautiful place, a beautiful village, a beautiful location, but so far off the beaten path," she said. "Rutland is where most people shop, and have for a long while. I wouldn't go there [the Pierce store]even if it had gourmet food. Because if I'm going to get in the car, I would go the 10 miles to Rutland."
But there are locals who look forward to the store reopening.
"I really miss it," said Anne Haley, the town clerk. "You get a much greater sense of community when you see people in the store. It just makes the town more vibrant."
She admitted she didn't buy much there when the Pierces ran the store because they didn't carry much. She hopes it will stock prepared foods to pick up on the way home, or become a restaurant with Vermont-made products, "and maybe some fine wines and cheeses, so you don't have to run into Rutland."
Melissa Reichert said the store's location, on the road to the town dump, would draw patrons. "The schools are there and the town offices are there. So if it were me, I'd go to the dump and stop [at the store] and pick up the Sunday paper," she said.
Even Grace Brigham's 57-year-old brother, George "Chet" Brigham, is a booster. He envisions a community-run café, a place for people to gather for "coffee, conviviality, and art" that would also function as "a real store" selling local products and baked goods.
Brigham, a blacksmith, once counted 42 cars passing the store at "rush hour," which he said proves it would have a customer base. The adjacent homestead could be used as a community bed-and-breakfast, he said, "a town guesthouse."
He believes the co-op idea could work. He pointed to a cooperatively run store in Adamant, Vt., a town of 48 at a confluence of unpaved roads north of Montpelier. The co-op acts as post office, convenience store, and gathering place, with a part-time staff of four and some 30 volunteers. But does it work?
"It's been around since 1935 and it'll never die, so I guess it's working," said Janet MacLeod, the co-op president, "but it's a struggle."
There's always a crunch paying bills, she confessed, and it's hard getting suppliers when minimum orders are so low. "But everyone wants to keep it going," she said. Like many Vermont towns, North Shrewsbury included, it's a cohesive place.
"We're like a family. We have our squabbles, but everybody works it out."
Larry Carrara's grandfather was the Pierces' first customer after they took over the store. In turn, his father and he both bought candy there, and Carrara said he would shop there again if the store reopened.
Carrara gained some notoriety when in 1986 a moose took a liking to a cow that was grazing in his yard, and the subsequent 76-day romance became a cultural phenomenon, with sightseers by the thousands. Carrara penned a book, "A Moose for Jessica," and subsequently opened a convenience store nearby that he ran for more than a decade.
"It was going to be a hobby ," said Carrara, now 70 and long retired from
Information on the North Shrewsbury country store is at www.ptvermont.org.
