The Store

The Store is and incredible experience. Been shopping here for over 20 years. No need to analyze, just enjoy~

So we’ve been visiting here against my will for about 20 years now, yes gentlemen, this store is a shop-loving-wife’s paradise, and I have grown to not necessarily like it as much as be fond of it when I return to it. It makes me chuckle as I wander through it, sipping my complimentary coffee.
It’s actually very quaint, it used to be a barn, and they have a lot of very old furniture upstairs.
When you enter The Store, (I’m sure it’s listed in the local phone book under «The») a sweet, smiling girl asks if you want coffee or tea. This act of kindness and welcoming alone would give this place 4.5 stars in my book, and if they offered a martini, I wouldn’t care if they sold poop for $ 50 a pound, I would be quite happy to be here indeed and would give it 5 stars without a second thought.
But that’s part of the problem, they don’t sell poop for $ 50 a pound, but they sell stuff like olives in a glass jar soaked in vodka for $ 8. Since my wife was wandering around, drooling and getting glazed-​eyes like some women do when they are confronted by unlimited amounts of exciting trash and coveting little trinkets like the doggie ornaments on the faux-​Christmas tree, I had plenty of time to stare at the glass jar and count the olives inside (17, to be exact). I was transported to another place and time, yes, that time I was in Harrod’s where the olives were 12 British Pounds per jar, and I was thinking this was a bargain, when I snapped back to reality and put the jar back in its resting place on the ca. 1800 A.D. cabinet, which this store would be only too happy to sell to you instead of the olives for the low low price of $ 2500.
Yes, this is Vermont country-​kitsch at its finest, located in a primo, sexy hot ski town. Cookbooks everywhere, linens from god-​knows where, and Christmas ornaments only a grandma can bear. The entire store smells of cinnamon and everyone wears a lovely apron emblazoned with the store’s name on it. Cooking classes can be had in the back and don’t worry, you don’t have to buy all your knives from here.
The Store used to be rather disorganized, musty, smelly, and it had an eclectic array of knick-​knacks, paddy-​whacks, and bizarre serving utensils, but now, since it has changed ownership at least 2 or 3 times since we first came in 2 decades ago, it has the air of a mega-​national-​corporate-​wanna-​be-​Martha-​Stewart-​imitating-​hugely-​expensive-​what-​people-​who-​are-​not from-​Vermont-​want-​Vermont-​to-​be kinda store.
In short, it is what it is, not part of any chain yet, but… But I had a lot of fun writing this review, and I will greet the nice coffee and tea-​serving girl with a wide grin on my face the next time I visit.