Recognizing the 80th Anniversary of the Vermont Country Store

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Madam President, I rise today to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Vermont Country Store opening its doors in Weston, VT.

Eight decades after its founding, the Vermont Country Store remains a staple of Vermont's business community and is known to folks across the country for its selection of high-quality products and old-fashioned charm. Throughout the store's history, its owners, the Orton family-- who pride themselves as the ``Purveyors of the Practical and Hard-to- Find''--have maintained the store's traditions while continuously adapting the store to the changing economy.

The Vermont Country Store started as an aspiration of Vrest Orton's in the early 1900s. Vrest grew up in Calais, VT, where, as a child, he helped run his father's country store. Vrest hatched the idea for the Vermont Country Store decades later while working at the Pentagon during World War II. Vrest wanted to bring old-fashioned, high-quality products--like those sold in his father's store--to customers far and wide at a time when country stores like his father's were dying around the country as the United States grew and consumption patterns changed. Vrest and his wife Mildred started the Vermont Country Store as a catalog mailing business, headquartered in their kitchen.

Vrest and Mildred were savvy entrepreneurs. Because catalog mailing businesses were innovative at the time, customers were skeptical of sending cash through the mail, so the Ortons included a ``Customer's Bill of Rights'' in each catalog to make people feel confident about doing business with the Vermont Country Store. The couple mailed their first catalog in 1946 to about 1,000 customers. It was 12 pages long, and its products were drawn in black and white, captioned by Vrest himself.

The Ortons' first catalog was so successful that they were able to open the doors to Vermont Country Store's first retail location in Weston, VT, a year later in 1947, where it remains to this day. The store was cluttered but curated, and customers appreciated its rustic character. In 1984, the Weston store, along with the entire Weston Village Historic District, was rightfully included in the National Register of Historic Places.

By 1967, the Vermont Country Store had grown so much that the Ortons were able to open a second location in nearby Rockingham, allowing them to expand their merchandise, storage, and customer service offerings. Like the Weston store, the new location maintained its hallmark old- fashioned appeal, featuring a restored covered bridge and a gristmill.

Vrest's and Mildred's son Lyman took over running the Vermont Country Store in 1972, at a time when business in America was changing by the minute. Lyman worked to carry on his parents' legacy and improved customer service by expanding phone-ordering capabilities and further expanding the store's offerings. He made exclusive agreements with merchandisers, cementing Vermont Country Store's reputation for having niche and high-quality products.

Now, Lyman's sons Cabot, Eliot, and Gardner, help him run the Vermont Country Store. Together, they have adapted to the digital age while retaining much of the old-fashioned appeal that has made Vermont Country Store so special and successful. Despite having a website, most of the store's business is still driven by catalog sales, which today is 100 pages long and features professionally shot and color-printed photos of handmade fudge, wool rugs, and seersucker pajamas.

The Vermont Country Store is now celebrating its 80th anniversary under a third generation of Ortons and is thriving. I wish the Orton family nothing but continued success and extend my deep gratitude for what they have done to bring little pieces of Vermont to every corner of the country and the world.

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