[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 217 (Thursday, December 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9253-S9254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 RECOGNIZING DAN & WHIT'S GENERAL STORE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in Vermont, the general store is the 
epicenter of a community. It is where people not only buy their 
groceries and newspapers, but also tools and hardware, mittens and 
hats, axes and chainsaws, gas for their cars, and too many other things 
to name. But just as important, general stores are where Vermonters 
meet their neighbors, and when the weather is good, pass the time and 
talk about their families, things going on in town, or the state of the 
world.
  Marcelle and I have been to just about every general store in 
Vermont, and each one has its own history and character. One of them, 
Dan & Whit's, stands out. Located in Norwich about halfway up the 
eastern side of the State bordering on the Connecticut River, the store 
that became Dan & Whit's has been operating since 1891. It was 
originally called Merrill's Store, and the old Merrill's sign is still 
affixed to the front. The same neon clock, mounted high on the front of 
the store's facade, has told the time to the town since the 1950s. Made 
by the Electric Neon Clock Co. in Cleveland, it was recently restored 
and made energy efficient.
  In 1955, Dan Fraser and Whit Hicks, who had both worked at the store 
for over 20 years, bought it from Mr. Merrill. Since then, Dan & Whit's 
has been open for business 365 days a year, including a half day on 
Christmas and a half day on Thanksgiving. Dan and Whit ran the store as 
partners, and Dan's wife Eliza, known to all as ``Bunnie'', did the 
bookkeeping in the raised office near the stationery and greeting cards 
until Whit retired and sold out in 1972.
  Dan, who from what I am told hardly took a day off during all those 
years, retired in 1993, and turned the management of the store over to 
his sons George and Jack, and their sister Jane pitched in off and on. 
George's wife Susan took over Bunnie's job in the office, which hadn't 
changed in decades, except the typewriter was replaced by a computer. 
Ownership of the store is currently shared between George and his two 
sons Dan and Matt. Dan, after a 14-year career as a special education 
teacher, has taken over the day-to-day management.
  Most townspeople have an account, so they can simply sign the 
register and pay the bill at the end of the month. At no charge for 
local calls, anyone can use the push-button phone with its long cord by 
the ice machine, and before cell phones, it was a vital link from the 
magical abundance of the store to the outside world: ``Do we need 
anything at Dan & Whit's?''
  There is a reason why the sign in the store window says, ``If we 
don't have it, you don't need it,'' because when you walk in and keep 
walking, the store never seems to end. Dan & Whit's has got absolutely 
everything, at least everything a person could reasonably want or need. 
There is fresh fruit and vegetables, a selection of wines, kitchen 
utensils, bins of nails and boxes of screws, fishing tackle, ladders 
and rakes, paint, bags of horse feed, maple syrup and candy, toys, ice 
cream scooped on the premises in summertime, home-brewed beer, bright 
orange hunting caps, snow boots, plumbing and electrical supplies, 
shovels and wheelbarrows, wood stoves, birdseed, the local and national 
newspapers, a deli, gasoline pumps and an electric vehicle charging 
station, and lots more. The place is kept warm in the winter by a wood-
fired furnace in the basement, requiring cords and cords of wood--
delivered, split, and stacked behind the Frasers' homes, and there are 
solar panels on the roof. Dan & Whit's has long been a favored stop for 
hikers on the Appalachian Trail, which passes through the center of 
Norwich.
  Over the years, Dan & Whit's has hired local high school students to 
run the cash registers, and there was a time not that long ago when the 
employees who stocked the shelves and helped you find what you were 
looking for were long-timers like Larry Smith, who worked there for 
over 50 years.
  Recently, like so many other businesses in our State and around the 
country, it has been hard to find help. In fact, Dan & Whit's was 
facing the real possibility of closing, which would have been 
devastating for the people of Norwich, as well as countless others who 
come there to shop, as well as former residents of Norwich who stop at 
the store just to be sure that it is the same as it always was.
  As many have remarked, Dan & Whit's is the heart of Norwich, and 
losing it would have changed everything. I can't imagine Norwich 
without Dan & Whit's, and I suspect just about everyone who knows the 
store feels the same way. Real estate listings for property sales in 
the town include the distance from Dan & Whit's. Hundreds of notices 
are along the wall by the entrance: dog lost, secondhand items for 
sale, yoga lessons, a free concert, snow plowing. It all happens at the 
general store.
  Fortunately, but not surprisingly, when word got out that the store 
might close, the people of Norwich came to the rescue, and Dan & Whit's 
has not lost a day of business. I want to add my thanks to Dan and the 
volunteers who saved the heart of Norwich. They have reminded us of 
what is best about Vermont and, in doing so, have set an example for 
people everywhere.
  I ask unanimous consent that a piece written on December 7 by Robert 
Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               The Heart of a Community: a Small Business

                           (By Robert Reich)

       I've got a special place near my heart for Dan & Whit's 
     general store in Norwich, Vermont. It was there for me during 
     my undergraduate years in college in nearby Hanover, New 
     Hampshire--often on snowy evenings when I couldn't get 
     supplies elsewhere. Years later, when my parents moved to 
     Vermont for their retirement, Dan & Whit's was there for 
     them, too.
       Like many places around the country, Vermont has been 
     struggling with finding enough workers to fill jobs. But 
     unlike most urban centers, where the obvious answer is to pay 
     workers more, rural towns can't always count on higher wages 
     to elicit more job applicants because populations are thin 
     and often declining. And unlike profitable national retail 
     chains, mom-and-pop businesses can't just absorb higher labor 
     costs. And they can't simply pass them on to customers in 
     higher prices, because small-town customers might not have 
     the ability to pay.
       So when Dan & Whit's owner Dan Fraser recently put up a 
     ``Help Wanted'' sign, the inhabitants of Norwich knew it was 
     bad news. (I never met the younger Dan but I'm sure I met his 
     grandfather, who passed the store on to his father, who 
     passed it on to Dan.) After three generations, Dan would have 
     to close the place down if he didn't get help. So what was he 
     to do? I heard the rest of the story on the radio. It turned 
     out that Dan didn't need to do anything. Word went out. Soon, 
     Dan's customers began applying for the jobs. Rick Ferrell, a 
     local doctor, took on a shift at the register. A retired 
     finance director applied for the deli counter. A nurse, a 
     teacher, a psychology professor, a therapist, a school 
     principal--nearly two dozen customers have stepped up to 
     stock shelves, do the inventory, and clean up the place, so 
     that Dan & Whit's can remain open. (Virtually all of these 
     new hires are donating their hourly wages to some of Dan's 
     favorite charities.)
       I've spent a lot of time over the years examining what 
     happens to communities when important businesses close or 
     abandon them--often because some bean counters back in 
     headquarters hundreds or thousands of miles away decide it's 
     not worth the cost of keeping the businesses going where they 
     are. Economists often praise capitalism's wondrous 
     ``efficiencies'' at moving assets to their ``highest and best 
     uses.'' Well, there's

[[Page S9254]]

     something to that. But what's left out of the equation are 
     the social costs of these moves. They can be quite high.
       When asked why the people of Norwich stepped in to help Dan 
     & Whit's keep going, employee Dianne Miller said it was 
     ``because Dan & Whit's is the heartbeat of this community.'' 
     Others described it as the ``heart of the town.'' That's the 
     best quick summary of the social benefits of a place like Dan 
     & Whit's I've ever heard. Communities do have hearts. When 
     businesses at those hearts disappear, more is lost than an 
     economic asset. The community loses a place that allows it to 
     be a community--a place where people meet up, congregate, 
     exchange gossip and information, barter, learn about common 
     problems, sometimes decide to take action.
       I remember Dan & Whit's as such a place. I can't imagine 
     Norwich without it. Luckily, it won't have to be. But this 
     isn't just a ``feel good'' story about one country town 
     coming together to save an iconic general store. It seems to 
     me there's an important lesson here for all of us, wherever 
     we live.
       American capitalism is the harshest form of capitalism in 
     all of the world's advanced economies. It takes almost no 
     account of social costs and benefits. Businesses swoop in and 
     swoop out wherever and however profits can be maximized and 
     losses minimized.
       But communities are different. They aren't nearly as 
     footloose as financial capital. They're built on social 
     capital, which often takes years to accumulate and can't be 
     cashed in.
       I think people owe something to businesses that are the 
     hearts of our communities. Maybe we shouldn't allow big 
     chains or Walmarts to drain our main streets of the commerce 
     they need to survive. (Even if Walmart's items are cheaper, 
     the social costs of losing the small businesses that 
     undergird our community are often way higher.) Maybe we 
     should donate some of our own time and labor to account for 
     the importance of these core businesses. Maybe those of us 
     who can afford to should buy shares in them, to give them an 
     added financial cushion. At the very least, we owe them our 
     patronage--rather than, say, the Waltons or Jeff Bezos.
       What do you think?

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