Whether you call them country stores, village stores or general stores – these businesses have historically been something between a convenience store and a community center. They were the main place to get groceries or a cup of coffee for miles.
But times have changed. Country stores have struggled to survive as grocery chains and big box stores cropped up across New Hampshire, and you can often grab a snack or batteries at your local gas station.
“The country store without some other kind of novelty piece is pretty much dead,” Dave Dauphinais said.
He and his wife used to run the 200-year-old Tuftonboro Country Store, which they operated like a cozy, old-timey convenience store. But he says it was a labor of love, not a financial success.
There were high business expenses, and not enough customers. Without a draw like gas pumps, there wasn’t a draw for people to come into the store. What they did sell didn’t make a big impact on their finances.
Throughout his time working there Dauphinais also worked a separate full time job to make ends meet. He closed the store down about a year ago.
“The store limped along for 20 to 25 years before I closed it,” Dauphinais said.
He says the country stores that are still successful have leaned away from the convenience store model and more into the tourism market. They’re also on well-traveled tourist routes.
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Country stores are iconic parts of New England’s landscape. But these nostalgic local businesses are facing some difficult economic challenges.
Moultonborough’s Old Country Store and Museum, for instance, sits right on Route 25. The store, which dates back to the 1700s, is a popular spot for leaf peepers and skiers to stop as they travel through New Hampshire.
The store sells old-fashioned candies and candles. Laurie Holden works the antique registers.
“We don't have computers here,” Holden said. “We add everything up on a paper bag. We also have a museum with old tools and [information on] life in a small town in it. And people love the old floors that are not level.”
Holden says locals will come in occasionally in winter for some gourmet cheese or a kitchen gadget, but they generally stay away when the store is busy with tourists.
For the Harrisville General Store, the solution wasn’t tourism, it was to become a registered charity.
“We are operating it so that it serves the community rather than so that we earn any kind of profit,” John Knight said. He’s the executive director of Historic Harrisville, a local nonprofit that works to preserve the town’s history.
Historic Harrisville bought the town’s general store in 2008, which was in rough shape financially and structurally. Knight oversees the store’s budget with its manager, and Historic Harrisville acts as the landlord.
“[The store] feels very critical to the preservation of this town… to have a place where people can go and see each other and have good food and buy the necessary groceries and merchandise that they might need,” Knight said.
During the pandemic, the store operated at a loss, and some years it doesn’t break even during the slow winter season. That’s when Historic Harrisville fills the financial gap. Knight says the nonprofit angle appeals to the altruistic side of customers.
“There's like this reinforcing loop of the sense that what we're doing there makes a difference,” Knight said. “And because of that idea, there's a bit more financial support than a typical just general store by the side of the highway.”
But some people are not giving up on the more traditional, for-profit country store model. Damaris Graham and her sister are planning to reopen the Gilsum Village Store this spring, which first opened in the 1800s.
“I live pretty much right down the street from where the store is,” Graham said. “I was checking my mail and I saw the ‘for rent’ sign in the window, and I just had a feeling in my body of this is what I’m meant to do.”
The sisters plan to stock daily convenience items and create a space for the community to gather. The area is rural and some people in the region have to drive to Keene to get bread or coffee.
“There's just certain things that aren't worth driving 20 minutes for,” Graham said. “And that's what we want to offer in the Gilsum Village store, so that we have everything that the locals need on a daily basis.”
Graham is counting on what was true 200 years ago to still be true today: there’s no need to schlep to the big city when you can just stop by your local country store.
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