ORWELL — Once upon a time, most Vermont communities had a general store where you could buy anything from paper clips to smoked bacon.

Local gossip was thrown in for free.

In Orwell, the general store has lived at 499 Main St. since 1910. It hit its stride in 1967, when Dick and Thelma Buxton acquired the property and built a reputation for stellar customer service that has followed the enterprise to this day.

Unfortunately, a good reputation won’t pay the bills, noted their grandson Andy Buxton, who in 2017 — with his wife, Mary — acquired the store in which he’d worked many years cutting meat, stocking shelves and waiting on customers.

Sadly, when Andy and Mary Buxton lock the store door at the end of business on Oct. 31, they won’t be reopening on Nov. 1.

Or anytime thereafter.

The recent arrival in neighboring Shoreham of a Dollar General, the advent of big-box stores, Amazon, a worldwide pandemic and evolving consumer habits have decimated Buxton Store’s bottom line.

So barring the emergence of an 11th-hour, deep-pocketed investor, Buxton’s days as a general store are numbered. The survival of 499 Main Street’s presences as a commercial and/or social hub appears pinned to a fundraising effort by state Rep. Joe Andriano, D-Orwell, who’d like to see the property survive as a non-profit community center (see related story).

Buxton’s is far from the first rural country store to wither in the 21st-century economy. From Guilford to East Calais, and Benson to West Townsend, the Vermont landscape is strewn with the wreckage — and in some cases, the inspirational re-birth — of mom-and-pop stores that used to dispense nourishment and companionship amid the warm glow of a potbelly stove.

It’s been an intoxicating, folksy mode of commerce that’s added to Vermont’s Rockwellian mystique.

But people aren’t supporting it these days.

For years, Orwellians have been saying, “We don’t know what we’d do without Buxton’s.”

They’re about to find out.

“All of a sudden, you realize you’re not as essential as you thought you were,” Andy Buxton said during a phone interview late last week.

The Buxtons — who had a combined 35 years in the hospitality industry prior to buying the store that once belonged to Andy’s grandparents — aren’t throwing in the towel for lack of effort, nor has their predicament stemmed from financial mismanagement.

It’s complicated, but it all boils down to money.

Part of it is a shallow labor market amid a low unemployment rate. Those looking for jobs aren’t lining up to work at a small general store that can’t compete with larger companies able to offer bigger salaries and benefits. Four years ago, Buxton’s was cutting checks to around 24 full- and part-time employees. Going into next week, the payroll is at four (who are not family members).

A lack of workers has forced Buxton’s to trim its hours.

“You do what you can with who you’ve got,” said Buxton, who noted he and Mary have been so anchored to the business that they’ve missed out on a lot of family time with their daughters.

Adding to the store’s doldrums is the fact that shoppers are increasingly ordering online or making weekly runs to major supermarkets for bulk grocery purchases. Instead of filling their baskets at Buxton’s, folks have been stopping there for just that half gallon of milk and/or maybe a sixpack and bag of chips to consume on game day.

And there’s more competition among those catering to the “small purchases” crowd; gas station/convenience stores have multiplied, and many are carrying the same Cabot cheese, Monument Farms milk and chips that you can get at the independently owned Buxton’s.

“I have to remind people not to forget that we might be $1 or 50 cents more expensive, but that money goes through our till, gets walked to our local bank, where it gets distributed among our local employees who turn around and try to spend it as locally as possible,” Buxton said. “I understand that just like eating healthy, shopping local is expensive — and that’s always been the trend since my grandparents were her 50 years ago. We’ve always been here for the convenience of it.”

PANDEMIC HIT

The aforementioned trends alone presented a tough enough battle without COVID piling on in 2020-2021, according to Buxton. The pandemic cut down on people’s in-person shopping and compelled product suppliers to boost their minimum delivery thresholds — a trend that continues to this day. So in order to assure store selections are rotated and replenished, Buxton sometimes has to order more than he might be able to sell.

He greets the UPS drivers and can’t help but notice a cargo that sometimes includes meal kits.

“It’s a cold, hard fact … that we’ve become non-essential to the majority of the population,” Buxton said. “I don’t say that in an (accusatory) way; it’s just a statement of what we’re seeing.”

The Buxtons could have hoisted the white flag a few years ago, but didn’t want to close without a fight. The family made a big investment in a new kitchen to produce “grab-and-go” meals, trying to capitalize on local praise for Andy’s culinary skills. Rather than become solely dependent on conventional market purchases and the store’s much-loved deli offerings, the Buxtons wanted to also offer flatbread pizza, burgers, creemees, homemade meals and more.

ANDY BUXTON

They also added an ice cream shack, noting the universal appeal of creemees.

“We’ve followed our business plan just about to a T,” Buxton said, but then added: “We’ve made some really good decisions, but with impeccably poor timing.”

The pandemic hit less than a year after the kitchen investment.

People didn’t line up for creemees.

Meanwhile, the Buxtons continue to pay off the mortgage on the takeout kitchen and ice cream shack — which they were forced to sell in 2021.

“You’ve got an ice cream shack you still owe debt on, an expensive takeout kitchen that’s not operational — and we’re still paying the mortgage on that, plus our regular mortgage,” Buxton lamented.

The store has historically allowed locals to maintain charge accounts and pay their bill monthly. But with less revenue coming in, it’s become tougher for the store to operate without that credited money in the till.

“Sometimes, you’re caught halfway through the month with $8,000 in cash flow out there waiting to come in,” Buxton said. “And then, ‘boom,’ a cooler goes down.”

Slower-than-anticipated winter and summer sales have compounded the situation this year, he added. It’s an observation shared by the owners of three marinas in town, according to Buxton.

“People have been tight with their money,” he said.

Orwell resident Dan Recupero and his family have been avid supporters of Buxton’s Store since they arrived in town in 2004. The local store was one of their first points of community contact.

CALL YOU BY NAME

“Right from the start, we felt incredibly welcomed,” he said. “When you go in there, somebody calls you by your name. They ask how you’re doing and what you’ve been up to. The quick trip in might have been for that gallon of milk, but you might stand there talking for 10 minutes. The idea that you could get your food, your groceries and friendship there, is pretty cool.”

Recupero supports Andriano’s effort to turn 499 Main St. into a non-profit entity governed with community input. Recupero wants to see the property remain a general store. He noted that barring Buxton’s, Orwell residents would need to travel 20-30 minutes to find other, substantial grocery options.

So what’s in store for the Buxtons once they end their run as store keeps?

Fortunately, Mary continues to hold a good job with the University of Vermont Health Network.

Andy said he’ll take a couple weeks to coordinate store closure matters, after which he’ll revel in more family time and think about what’s next for him.

He’s enjoyed the outpouring of love since announcing the tough news. He knows the closing of Buxton’s Store will leave a big void in town and for himself, one that transcends mere commerce.

“It’s a huge social part of my day,” Buxton said. “I’m not losing customers; I’m losing day-to-day friends. It’s just like being a bartender. You learn about their families, when their graduating, what they’re going off to do, their ups and their downs. It’s a such a great network of friends that we’ve built.”

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].