Wayside Workdays

Story and photos by Philip R. Jordan

West Arlington’s venerable Wayside Country Store is a game-changer for the art of country retailing.

The Wayside’s storekeepers gather on the front porch; from left to right are Nancy Tschorn, her granddaughter Chelsea holding daughter Hadley, Nancy’s daughter-in-law Suzanne, and Suzanne’s husband, Allan Tschorn.

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY stay the same…true or false? You might say Wayside Country Store (otherwise known as “the Wayside”) in

West Arlington never appears to change. Spirited conversa-tion still goes on around the round table with its checkered tablecloth (the table used to belong to famed fly fisherman Lee Wulff) near the coffee bar, as it has for years. A pad and pencil are on the counter for customer requests, the small sign adver-tising (tongue-in-cheek) “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!” is still in the front window, and a large roll-top desk still serves as the hub of the store’s office. By all accounts, with some name changes along the way, a country store has been in operation

in this spot in one form or another for more than 130 years. Originally a harness shop, possibly much like the build-ing now occupied by H.N. Williams store in Dorset, the main part of the building was converted to use as a store in 1879 when it was joined with another store building that had been moved onto the property. By the mid-1930s, it was in opera-tion as Smith’s Cash Store and later became known for a well-advertised, 1949 clearance sale and a promotional stunt that almost smacked of desperation: The owners tossed live, unfet-tered chickens (each with dollar bills tied to its legs) a-flutter off the porch roof for the assembled onlookers to chase and catch. This early form of economic stimulus thankfully brought those

dollar bills (and many more) back into the store to be spent on fire-sale-priced bargains, and many customers that day enjoyed chicken for dinner as well. Es-caping the fate of the chickens, Smith’s Cash Store survived, but later passed into the hands of the Doyle family and then that of the Whitmans; by then it was known as Wayside Country Store. Sandgate residents Doug and Nan-cy Tschorn purchased the store in 1984, bringing with them considerable expe-rience gained in owning and operating Chem-Clean, a nearby furniture res-toration business that also sells power equipment and gasoline. Sadly, Doug, an avid member and supporter of the Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores, passed away in late 2014, but ladies from three generations of his family remain closely involved in operating the Wayside. That is why “We’re not a Mom and Pop any more,” says Nancy. “We’re a Mom, Mom, and Mom.”

As Seen in VERMONTVERMONT m a g a z i n eWWW.VERMONTMAGAZINE.COM

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The store’s edifice has changed little over the many years the building has sat beside Route 313. Below, Chelsea sets out fruit, cheese, and freshly baked items at the front counter.

Nancy, plus her daughter-in-law Suzanne and Nancy’s granddaughter, Chelsea, all work at the store and are among its staff of 12 people. And for anyone questioning how much time and energy a storekeeper must invest in running a busi-ness, Nancy might offer up this sage observation, based on her past 31 years of experience: “A job is what you do, not who you are—unless you own and operate a country store.” Chelsea has been working at the Wayside since graduating from college with a degree in business in 2010. “I probably started part time in 2004 while I was a high school student,” she says, pausing to reflect on this before adding, with a smile, “but of course, I’ve been here my entire life!” Times are a-changing for Vermont’s country stores, much as they have been for the state’s dairy farms, whose number continues to dwindle. Even in the short seven years since Ver-mont Magazine’s Vermont General Stores department made its debut in 2006 with a story on the Wayside, and Dennis Bathory-Kitsz’s guidebook Country Stores of Vermont made its debut, some of the country stores Dennis describes—plus several oth-ers that escaped coverage—have closed their doors, perhaps forever. The Wayside soldiers on, for sure, but there have been many innovative and adaptive changes in the store that have kept the Wayside going strong, despite new competition and an ever-changing landscape of wholesale grocery suppliers. Ver-mont Magazine’s staff thought it would be good to return to the Wayside in 2015 to see what has changed. “We have a dollar store [in Arlington],” says Nancy, “which we did not have before now.” However, “We still carry name-brand things,” adds Chelsea “like Heinz catsup, but now we also carry organic alternatives. We try to operate as a convenience store, but we also carry as many local items as we can, to sup-port the buy-local movement.” One example? Maple syrup; the store buys it from Double H Maple Products in Arlington. The price is competitive and there is no delivery fee, so the Wayside can sell syrup for less than when it came from a big grocery sup-plier. Other local products that make their way directly to the store include Fortuna Sausage (made in Sandgate), Kelly’s K-9 Dog Cookies (from Manchester), and Murray Hollow Bread, which has just arrived from the bakery a few miles down the road. “It doesn’t get any fresher than that!” exclaims Chelsea as she puts a basket of the still-warm loaves on display. When it comes to general merchandise, “You used to just order things when the truck came by,” observes Nancy’s son, Allan. “Now, there’s a $12.50 “stop fee” that many suppliers added back when fuel prices went up; so today, you really have to make a commitment to carry someone’s product. And…if the economy goes down and minimums go up, then what do you do?” The Tschorns have in some cases convinced suppliers who have imposed a new minimum weekly order requirement to instead deliver goods every two weeks, rather than dropping the account altogether. Allan has a key role in Wayside’s opera-tion, “but not behind the register…although…I do take confes-sions!” he jokes. While he does run the Chem-Clean business, he also serves as the Wayside’s consultant on issues of equip-ment purchases, insurance, and fuel and deals with a plethora of details. In the process, “he’s become very aware of how dif-ficult it’s become to do business in Vermont,” Nancy says. “Two of the most regulated businesses,” Allan observes, “are gasoline

and food. And [the] taxes and regulations impact small busi-nesses.” Allan adds with a chuckle that his job is really “to keep the bookkeeper happy” (that person is his wife, Suzanne). “Su-zanne became interested in alternative foods because of her own choices,” says Nancy. “So, we split some food orders, with her taking some and the store taking some to see if there was a market; we were pleasantly surprised that there was.” So now

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The Wayside’s round table sees a wide variety of travelers, commuters, and locals who stop by to enjoy either coffee and a pastry or a meal. Close at hand are the deli case and the always-bountiful sporting goods department. Ever-changing displays tempt shoppers with everything from garden seeds to locally made, freshly baked bread.

the store offers a variety of GMO-free and gluten-free foods. Suzanne downplays her role, simply saying with a smile, “I do a lot of ordering … also accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the tax filings. I started doing office work here in the ’90s.” Suzanne also makes and sells custom dog leashes, an offshoot of the interest she and Allan have in mushing with their sled-dog team; quite naturally, the pet food section at the store has accordingly expanded. What else can you buy at the Wayside? Made in Vermont goodies include Grandma Miller’s famous pies, Taylor Farm’s to-die-for maple Gouda cheese (from Londonderry), Vermont Maple Granola (from Danby), and Jamtastic jams (from Ru-pert). Sure, you can still buy your hunting or fishing license here, or a deli sandwich if you please. Look closely and you can find such treasures as a brand-new, wind-up brass alarm clock, a spinning reel, or a kerosene hurricane lamp. For folks

on the go, everything from hot coffee and a doughnut to a Van Holton’s curious but popular Pickle in a Pouch is available. “We’re still a morning/evening and weekend store,” Nancy says of the busiest times, although seats at the round table are usually all taken by noontime by a wide variety of folks who have stopped by for lunch. There, it is possible to rub elbows, for example, with both a salesman and a logger, plus a bank teller, a fisherman and a photographer, all just in one sitting and enjoy some pleasant and very diverse conversation all the while, as the local newspaper gets passed around. The store is open from 4:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., seven days per week, although “we’re thinking of backing it up to 5:00 a.m.,” says Nancy. “Opening at 4:00 was Doug’s thing.” The past 31 years have seen the rise of the internet, the fax machine, GPS, and the now-ubiquitous cellphone. Accordingly, the Wayside has entered into the 21st century via Facebook. “I

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do all the store’s social media,” explains Chelsea. “In an ideal world, I’d post ev-ery day; it is effective. If I post a Friday lunch special, people come right down for it. I once posted a 50-percent-off sale on Burt’s Bees products and a buyer came in 15 minutes later.” Throwback Thurs-day postings deal with a bit of the store’s history and the Tschorns; the explana-tion? “People like to know who they’re shopping with,” Chelsea explains. Nancy published a small book several years ago called Wayside Stories, a compendium of local tales, and she has now started a blog along similar lines, waysidecountrysto-ries.blogspot.com. That idea came from the West Coast, where Allan’s brother Adam lives. “Adam’s son encouraged me to do it, and it’s wonderful, good thera-py,” Nancy states. “It’s become a happy hobby!” In the years ahead, it appears likely the Wayside will continue on the course it has recently charted, having weathered the lure of the big box stores. “The ‘bigger and cheaper’ movement came and went,” Chelsea observes. And now, “There’s a great sense of support from the emerging generation,” Allan says optimistically, adding, “Another thing that’s changed is that people are seeing the value of shop-ping local.” That all goes toward carry-ing on Doug’s legacy, “and it’s really the legacy we got from the Whitmans, and before that, the Doyles, who bought the store from the Smiths,” says Nancy. Of the store’s future, she says, “I’d like to see it to be able to support a couple of fami-lies, to see us reinvent ourselves, while keeping the store so special.” It is probably safe to say that no chickens will be tossed from the Way-side’s porch roof again anytime soon.

JUST THE FACTSWayside Country Store3307 VT Route 313Arlington, VT 05250

Call (802) 375-2792 or visit facebook.com/ WaysideCountryStore.

Store hours: 5:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. daily.

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