See also the Adapted for the web from Woodstock Magazine, Fall 2008
— By Jennifer Pierce —
Photos by Jack Rowell
The Taftsville Store is the Hub of Village Life. Owner Charlie Wilson presides over this piece of history, reminiscent of a time when things moved more slowly and people stopped to inquire about your health.
T
here is no scanner at the checkout of Taftsville Country Store; it is all done by hand. If you are a regular, you are greeted by name and asked about your health. Charlie Wilson, owner of the Taftsville Country Store, has been called the unofficial mayor of Taftsville, a scenic hamlet of picturesque historic homes and inns.
The store originally
opened in 1840 and has been the nexus of the town through
168 years. Charlie, who has owned it for almost eighteen years,
performs other unofficial capacities, including a pet retrieval
service.
Recently, he spotted a terrier running up the hill behind his
store. He knew the constable wouldn’t get there in time, so he
ran after the dog.
Because he knew the dog and its owner, he felt responsible to try to help. Because he carries dog treats in his pockets, he caught it. This love of canines explains why Annie and Ruby, his two sleek golden retrievers, are the official store managers and hold place of honor under the counter. “Annie and Ruby run the store,” Charlie says, with a wink, “I provide the brawn, and they manage.” Charlie Wilison is a trim man with clear blue eyes and an ease of manner that comes from years of interacting with all kinds of people.
He started working in retail for a large department store in Los Angeles, where he worked for eighteen years. After a few visits to Vermont, where his parents kept a ski cabin, he realized he was burnt out.Looking around at the beauty of the area he said, “If I can just figure out how to make a living here, I can be a country boy.”
He wanted to be selfemployed and to buy an existing business where he could leave his mark. He started looking for a country store for sale. He took a job working at the Billings Farm & Museum and gave himself a year to find a store. The first store he checked out was the Taftsville Country Store, but it wasn’t listed on the market.
Back on the golf course in Taftsville, he was bemoaning that he’d found his dream store, but it wasn’t listed for sale. His friend and golf partner challenged him to approach the store’s owner and make an offer to buy it. “I told him he was crazy,” he recounts.
However, after the game he walked in and told the owner counter he wanted to buy her store, expecting to be thrown out on his ear. She surprised him by saying that it might be on the market soon. They closed on a deal within a year of that first meeting.
“The Taftsville Country Store still serves an awful lot of social functions for the town almost a government function,” said Charlie recently.
“The store is the business district. If someone loses a dog—they go to store. To mail a package, or look for somebody—they go to the store.” That the store is central to the life of the town is echoed by Anne Adams, local patron and co-author of the internationally syndicated, Vermont-based “
Ask Anne and Nan” advice columns. She has been shopping with Charlie for his tenure of eighteen years and appreciates his ability to meet the unspoken needs of his customers. “I have no idea how Charlie knows what people who come to his store and live in the neighborhood are looking for, but it always seems to be there,” she said.
“He has saved me a number of times when I’ve been baking and run out of an ingredient, something you wouldn’t expect to find in a country store, and he has it!” she exclaimed. She added that his gift for merchandising is that in a small space, Charlie has managed to understand the things we most need, from newspapers to cat litter to food, and he finds them and finds space for all of them, she said.