Henry's Market Opened: 2001 Owner: Gene Guertin Previous Tenants: Salem's Market (1911-2001) Cooperative: none Location: 831 Main St, Bennington, VT Photographed: August 8, 2021 Welcome to Bennington! This is the first time The Market Report visits this city in the far southwestern corner of the Green Mountain State, around five miles to the New York border and around double that to Massachusetts. There's a couple of chain supermarkets just outside of town, but Bennington has had a long history of small corner stores filling grocery needs (more on that soon). So for more than a century, this grocer at the corner of Main and South Branch has sold food. For 90 of those years, it was Salem's Market, before being sold in 2001 and becoming Henry's Market. It's a small market of just about 3500 square feet, but there's a lot here starting with produce at the front and some cheeses next to that. Smoked meats are a house specialty (the bacon is perfection, and...
Woodford General Store Opened: 2019 Owner: Ryan and Heather Hassett Previous Tenants: Woodford Mountain General Store Cooperative: none Location: 5053 VT-9, Woodford, VT Photographed: August 9, 2021 Woodford is roughly halfway between Wilmington and Bennington on route 9. Those two towns are the ones with bigger supermarkets, but Woodford has had a general store for a long time. It's clear from the inside that this store is freshly remodeled, and that's because it's only been open under its current ownership since 2019. But prior to that, this store (under the name Woodford Mountain General Store) seems to have been in business for a long time. In fact, if you look at the outside, you can see where the "mtn" was removed (for mountain) between Woodford and General. This store is now pretty specialized, with more specialty and local items along with a deli as opposed to the grocery basics. We're about a 20 minute drive from the Wilmington Shaw's but o...