Country store owner says the work wasn't what he expected

Teago General Store owner Chuck Gunderson, far right, listened to customers. (Valley News photo by Jennifer Hauck)

The residents of South Pomfret, Vermont, see the Teago General Store as a community hub where they can have a cup of coffee with a neighbor and catch up on the local news. But owner Chuck Gunderson, with his reserved demeanor, says he's the "antithesis of what a general store owner should be," Matt Hongoltz-Hetling reports for the Valley News in White River Junction, Vt. and Lebanon, N.H. When he bought the store on the auction block 30 years ago, he didn't realize that social skills would be involved.

"I kind of pictured myself sitting at the desk up front there, with plenty of time to read or write or do whatever I wanted and, you know, sell a few canned goods and things like that in between," Gunderson said.

"Instead," the News reports, "the reserved Gundersen soon found out that his customers — like many patrons of a vanishing breed of Vermont country stores — were interested in more than the hodgepodge assortment of sponges and mousetraps, Snapple and YooHoo, peanut butter and hand-warmers arrayed on the shelves above the well-worn floor boards. They valued the building as a community center — a place where they could strike up a conversation, learn local news and share a cup of coffee with a neighbor."

Since he has just sold the store, Gundrson is reflecting on his 30 years there: what he did to improve the place, his not-so-secret passion for rock 'n' roll as a moonlighting disc jockey, and his frequent columns in the Vermont Standard about his experiences minding the shop. When customers realized he loved music and literature, they began striking up more conversations. "It hasn’t brought me out of my shell so much as maybe it’s brought other people into my shell," Gunderson told the News.

At 73, Gunderson was ready to retire. He sold the store to Kathleen Dolan, a Pomfret resident who moved from New York City 15 years ago. She's already making plans for how to improve the store, and says the it will be there for decades to come.