[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?
____________________