Hero's Welcome - A Vermont Country Store featuring vermont gifts, vermont-made products, adirondack chairs, the dosacaffee espresso machine, and much more!

Author Jane Beck, a Vermont cultural historian, tells the story of a young man going into a Vermont general store.  After a while, he asks the older proprietor if he'd ever attended college.

"Nope" came the reply..."figured I'd had enough brain damage already."

"...yet the owner's education as a 'Roads Scholar' had far outstripped that of numerous inarticulate PHD's. His degrees were in economics, business administration, public relations, family counseling, public speaking, first aid, veterinary medicine and horse sense."

This story sounds a LOT like our own Hero's Welcome Store...which first opened over a hundred years ago.

The Tudhope family founded the store in the late 1800's.  These days, Doug Tudhope is our honored historian and lifetime town resident. He tells an old chestnut about learning the retail ropes, as taught by his father, Ira Tudhope.

One morning, the two of them were unpacking a huge cheese wheel, that would soon end up on the countertop, to be sold in slices.  Doug recalled a prominent label right on top of the box, reading "The New York Cheese Company". 

In the middle of this task, a town matron entered the store, and said "...Ira, I've come all this way for a slice of your delicious Vermont cheese". 

"Why", said Ira, "...it's just arrived!!" 

The box was whisked away and a slice of New York's very own, Famous Vermont Cheese was soon sold!

 You'll discover many a tale in this outstanding brief summary of Vermont's famous general stores.

The General Store in Vermont -by Jane Beck 41 pages. Paperback