Henry's Market - Bennington, VT

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 I'm not a big bacon guy), and those are on the right side too. A deli and butcher counter wraps around the left side of the store, with a couple grocery aisles in the middle stocking the basics.

This store definitely isn't a full supermarket, but has a lot more to offer than the average corner convenience store. Meats of various types are the big feature here, from the house-smoked bacon and other items, to the deli and the fresh butcher counter.

Picking up a block of Vermont cheddar and the thick-cut bacon here along with a dozen local eggs made for great breakfasts while I was in this part of Vermont. Highly recommended!

As you can see, they take the meats seriously here. Really nice to see a longtime corner store still standing out for something special and going strong over a century after it first opened!

Speaking of stores that are going strong, let's spend a few days now checking out grocery stores that aren't. Specifically, the closed supermarkets of Bennington. Those will be the next three days' posts, so come back to check them out!