Monday, November 29, 2004
Fighting The Good Fight: Vermont's Country Stores Organize to Face Threats
This is exactly how we should be fighting the scourge of big box stores, ie. Wal Mart. By banding together, they increase their buying power, as well as their political power. Wal Mart is destroying the Main Street shops throughout America. They have successfully bilked local and state governments of millions of dollars in tax breaks and saddled them with healthcare costs that their low wage workers are unable to pay. The big box pirate is now using its size to drive manufacturers prices down to the ground. Many are being asked to provide product at or below cost, which inevitably will be passed on to the workers, by arm twisting wage concessions. They are now trying to pose as a good guy by allowing trade unions in China, but these unions are not adversaries. They are state run unions meant to thwart real unionization in China. So, not exactly a change in policy by the most anti-worker company in the United States. Now it is up to you, to support your friends and neighbors by frequenting thier stores. Give them a big high five, as they fight the homogenization of America.
Vermont's Country Stores Organize to Face Threats
BRIDGEWATER CORNERS, Vt. - With its ample selection of Australian wines and shelves filled with DVD's and garlic-flavored pita chips, the country store in this tiny south-central Vermont town might appear to have come a long way since it opened in 1839.
But its creaky wood-plank floor, its wall of 19th-century mailboxes cater-cornered to a jar of Marshmallow Fluff and the proudly displayed town hunting ledger suggest that it has not really changed much.
Independent country stores like this one, the Bridgewater Corners Country Store, where customers are urged to sit outside at the wooden tables with a cup of coffee from a bottomless urn and where regulars run tabs, have long been a Vermont way of life. Now, threatened by the minimarts and large grocery chains that have driven some of them out of business in recent years, they have been banding together to help protect themselves.
Of the 100 independent country stores in the state, 55 have become members of the Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores. The organization, founded about two years ago, serves primarily as a support network, a sounding board and a marketing tool for owners. It promotes both the vitality and the history of the stores, limiting membership to those built before 1927, when the Winooski River flooded, decimating the state and killing 88 people.
Complete Story at The New York Times You may need a login to access this article.
Vermont's Country Stores Organize to Face Threats
BRIDGEWATER CORNERS, Vt. - With its ample selection of Australian wines and shelves filled with DVD's and garlic-flavored pita chips, the country store in this tiny south-central Vermont town might appear to have come a long way since it opened in 1839.
But its creaky wood-plank floor, its wall of 19th-century mailboxes cater-cornered to a jar of Marshmallow Fluff and the proudly displayed town hunting ledger suggest that it has not really changed much.
Independent country stores like this one, the Bridgewater Corners Country Store, where customers are urged to sit outside at the wooden tables with a cup of coffee from a bottomless urn and where regulars run tabs, have long been a Vermont way of life. Now, threatened by the minimarts and large grocery chains that have driven some of them out of business in recent years, they have been banding together to help protect themselves.
Of the 100 independent country stores in the state, 55 have become members of the Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores. The organization, founded about two years ago, serves primarily as a support network, a sounding board and a marketing tool for owners. It promotes both the vitality and the history of the stores, limiting membership to those built before 1927, when the Winooski River flooded, decimating the state and killing 88 people.
Complete Story at The New York Times You may need a login to access this article.
