Vermont General Stores: Past, Present and Future
January 24, 2026
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Vermont is home to 252 cities and towns, 55 state parks, 808 lakes and ponds, and 14 counties. But if you try to count how many Vermont general stores there are, it’s not so easy.
“It’s kind of hard to define them,” says Ben Doyle, president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont in Montpelier. “The central characteristic is that they’re a gathering place…an egalitarian place where anybody can go in there and feel at home.”
I made my own list of Vermont general stores and counted 64, though I’m sure I missed a few. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor said the number of independently run general stores is 70, which is down from 125 in 2001.
The Preservation Trust of Vermont has helped about a dozen Vermont communities establish nonprofits to run general stores that were on the verge of closing. Some of the stores the organization has helped include The Elmore Store, the Strafford General Store, and Pierce’s Store in Shrewsbury.
-Alison Singleton takes orders at Singleton’s General Store in Proctorsville.
For the other 55 or so Vermont general stores in operation, some have stayed in families for generations, like Singleton’s General Store in Proctorsville. Others have been sold to new owners, like the J.J. Hapgood Store in Peru or The Belmont General Store in Mount Holly.
But no matter how they’re run, Doyle says general stores are important to a community’s identity.
“I see them as places where community truly happens,” Doyle says. “When you visit a real general store, you’re known and cared for. It’s a place where people look out for each other.”
Singleton’s General Store is a perfect example. It’s a third-generation family business run by Dan and Alison Singleton. They care deeply about keeping up the traditions started by Dan’s grandfather, Bud Singleton, especially the store’s well-known smoked meats.
-Dan and Alison Singleton are the third generation operators of Singleton’s General Store.
Singleton’s is a hub in this small Windsor County town. When I visited in October, the store was busy. Customers were either eating lunch at picnic tables, grocery shopping, or chatting with staff at the deli counter.
Alison Singleton never thought she would be running a general store, but now she can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I originally went to school to be a game warden,” she says. “And then I met Dan, and I was just like, ‘I don’t care what happens, as long as I’m doing it with you.’”
Some of the biggest challenges for Vermont’s general stores are big-box competition, high prices, and succession plans. Doyle says it’s important for general stores to have new ideas, local support, and the ability to adapt.
“If people are attracted to general stores out of nostalgia, they’re missing the point,” Doyle says. “The greatest thing about Vermont—and this is odd coming from a historic preservation organization—is that our real work is to preserve the future.”
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