Why was there once a general store about every seven miles in Vermont?

That might sound like the start of a joke from The Old Farmer’s Almanac. But it’s a question that Kendra Nordin Beato got to address in reporting on the decline of those rural institutions. (It has to do with horse range between stops, the EV-range equivalent of old-time transportation.)

Time was, every town in the Green Mountain State had a town hall, a church, and two country stores, Kendra learned – one for food, one for hardware. Many merged. Over time, many closed. How many remain? Hard to say.

“The Vermont Retail & Grocers Association doesn’t track those numbers because it’s hard to define what a ‘general store’ is today,” Kendra says. “Is it a gas station that also sells Pop-Tarts?” One historian’s definition: It’s a non-corporate one-off, with its owner living inside or nearby. Some towns, Kendra writes, are finding new ways to keep those open.

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