CP Dudley Store Opened: 1889 Owner: Richard and Bonnie Hall Previous Tenants: none Cooperative: none Location: 2915 US-2, East Montpelier, VT Photographed: August 13, 2025 Like so many of the Vermont general stores we've seen (and will continue to visit as we pass through the state), East Montpelier's CP Dudley Store has been continuously operating for more than a century. It opened in 1889, and it's now attached to a gas station, as is fairly common for country general stores. Today, it's about 6,000 square feet, having apparently been expanded out both sides. Unlike a couple of the stores I've posted recently, Google Maps doesn't have an interactive tour of this one. Nevertheless, we can still get a look inside here . East Montpelier is a small town of just 2500, but it's just outside the larger town of Montpelier (which is also the capital of Vermont). That's where we're off to tomorrow for a look at one of two supermarkets in the town!
Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 355 N Main St, Barre, VT Opened: 1974 Closed: ca. 1990s Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed: August 13, 2025 It's not hard to tell from a glance that this building in downtown Barre was originally a supermarket. And given that we're here in Vermont, it's easy to guess who the original tenant was -- Grand Union, which has left plenty of similar buildings across the state. It's around 28,000 square feet, and has been subdivided between a shoe store and a Walgreens. Grand Union opened here in 1974, though this store replaced an older location in town that had been in business since at least the 1940s. I haven't been able to pin down exactly where that old store was. And it looks like this store didn't actually make it to Grand Union's 2001 bankruptcy, instead closing around the 1990s. I'm not sure if there was a very short-lived replacement store in the area, which is possible. At the...