Organizing Country Stores

If you own a small, economically challenged  country store built before 1927, do I have a deal for you. In a  New York Times article (11/28/04) on “Vermont’s Country Stores Organize to Face Threats,” 55 independent store owners have joined the Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores.  Started several years ago with state grants and sustained by annual $50. member fees, the Alliance, along with the Vermont Grocers Association, serves as a support network, a sounding board and a marketing tool.  Members can market themselves on the Alliance web site (http://www.vaics.org) and purchase inventory, even when they only want to order a few gallons of milk at a time instead of the large supply ordered by supermarket chain stores, big box stores and even convenience stores. Plus you might even get to walk to the store, pet the dogs, walk the creaky wood floors, and have coffee on the front steps. Good example of organizing  to maintain businesses in a rural atmosphere.

Another survival strategy I’ve heard about concerns a fruit tree nursery that used to sell a large portion of its inventory to chain stores.  Once the chain store asked the nursery to maintain and take back unsold stock and to accept payment only after the trees were sold, the nursery closed out its fruit tree inventory to produce only woody ornamentals that could be marketed more easily elsewhere.    

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