Smitty's Chester Market - Chester, VT

Smitty's Chester Market

Opened: 2020

Owner: Garrison Smith

Previous Tenants: general store (1847-1993) > Lisai's Market (1993-2020)

Cooperative: Associated Grocers of New England

Location: 526 Depot St, Chester, VT

Photographed: August 10, 2021

There's something quintessentially New England about an old-school general store, operating continuously since 1847, right next to the train tracks. That's what we're seeing here at Smitty's Chester Market in the small town of Chester, Vermont, though over the years the store has been expanded to a small supermarket of around 7500 square feet. It was various general stores for the first century and a half or so of its life, becoming Lisai's Market in 1993 joining an older location in Bellows Falls. Lisai's sold the store to its current owners in 2020.

And although the inside is a fully-functioning small supermarket, it still retains a lot of its history. You can get a clear sense of that (plus the layout) from the picture above, and I encourage you to click on it to enlarge it. It's narrow because it's constrained by the parking lot on one side and the train tracks on the other, but it's very deep so it goes very far back. Produce and the registers are up front, with long grocery aisles behind that. Dairy and frozen are on the two sides, with service meat and deli at the back.

You should read the timeline of the historical building that Smitty's has on its own website.

And you can see from that timeline that Hugh Jameson owned the store starting in the 1940s, then Doris Jameson Eddy from 1973 to 1993. One of them was likely responsible for this Jameson's sign, probably once hanging on the storefront but now hanging inside the store.

Smitty's is a member of Associated Grocers of New England (like Lisai's), so you'll see Food Club and Full Circle items on the shelves.

Springfield, VT (about six miles northeast) has a Shaw's and a food co-op located in a former A&P. Other than that, I believe the next-closest full supermarket is Lisai's over in Bellows Falls. But as you can see, there's a lot here in Smitty's, much more than just a convenience store.

It's really fun to see these historical general stores still selling groceries today, and we'll see quite a few others as we travel through Vermont. In fact, tomorrow's post will be another old-school general store-type grocer, about 12 miles west of here.

Come back to check it out!