 | THE UNITED STATES SENATE
Mr. LEAHY.
Mr. President, if there is one thing that anyone who visits Norwich, Vermont does not forget, it is Dan & Whit's General Store. Dan & Whit's is a Vermont legend, as are its namesakes, Dan Fraser and Whit Hicks, who bought the store back in 1955. Since then it has become the unrivaled nerve center of business, socializing, and political debate for Norwich and the surrounding area. Whit died a while back, Dan has since retired and his wife Eliza, known to all as Bunny, who did the bookkeeping, died not long ago. But the store has not lost any of the Vermont character they gave to it. Fortunately it has stayed in the family. Today it is managed by Dan's sons George and Jack Fraser, with the help of George's wife Susan, Jack's daughter Cheri, George's sons Dan and Matt, and a throng of loyal employees, young and old.
When you first enter Dan & Whit's you think it is just another grocery store. Of course there is a lot more Vermont maple syrup and cheddar cheese. But then you notice winter boots and snowshoes hanging from the ceiling, and boxes of nuts and bolts and nails and screws and every type of hardware. There are pots and pans, outdoor clothing, pens and stationery, guns and `No Hunting' signs. Keep
walking and you pass piles of the `New York Times' and the paint mixing machine, and then you realize you have barely scratched the surface. Through a door and around a corner there are aisles that stretch almost as far as you can see, stacked high with snow shovels, horse feed, half a dozen sizes of stove pipe, sheep fence, sewage pipe, sleds, saws and axes, rakes and wheelbarrows, mail boxes, window glass, there's no end to it. You can even bring in your fire extinguishers for recharging,
Jack being the Captain of the Norwich Fire Department. Thus the Dan & Whit's motto, `if we don't have it, you don't need it.' Vermont author Noel Perrin once wrote, `There may be a better general store in the United States. But I haven't heard of it.' Mr. President, Dan & Whit's General Store is the unbelievable number and variety of things you can buy there, but it is also the
extraordinary people who work there. In addition to the Fraser family members, it is people like Larry Smith, Linda Conrad, Al Langlois, Ron Swift, and Perry Wagner, who have been there for years and help make the store the one-of-a-kind place that it is. Dan & Whit's is people like Bill Fitzgerald, who finally retired after more than 30 years. Always in good spirits, always helpful, always finding what you need. And the one time in a million that they don't find it, they will convince
you that you did not need it in the first place. Recently, `The Norwich Times' printed an article about Dan & Whit's that says it better than I can. I ask that the article be printed in the Record.
If We Don't Have It, You Don't Need It
What has 22,600 square feet of space (but you'd never know it), and is filled with great stuff like aerators, Sorels, and the Sunday Times? The legendary Dan & Whit's has stretched out along Main Street ever since the
Merrill family opened their grain store in this location in 1891. At that time, the wandering building with the now-creaky wooden floors also housed Norwich's post office, town hall, and several small shops. Today, under the diligent management of owners George and Jack Fraser, this nerve center of Norwich is open seven days a week from seven o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night, three hundred and sixty three days a year. ALL IN THE FAMILY In 1955, Dan Fraser and his partner Whit Hicks bought it from Leon Merrill for whom they had worked since 1933. Dan and Whit plunged right in, expanding their
merchandise to include newspapers, guns, beer, and wine. As the line of merchandise and inventory continually expanded, family members helped out. First it was Dan Fraser and his wife Bunny running it with Whit and Grace Hicks. Also at that time, grandfather John pitched in and cemented the basement of the store and stocked shelves, while the younger generation filled in after school. In 1973 when Dan bought out Whit and became sole proprietor, he was joined by his sons, George
and Jack. Today, there are eight Frasers working at the store in various capacities. GOOD PEOPLE `What has kept me in the business is that I like the people. I would have retired
before, but I know it's hard to find good people.'
-Bill Fitzgerald, Dan & Whit's employee off and on since 1934. When two brothers work 60 and 70 hours each per week, one wonders how they can keep the pace. Jack and George say their partnership works very well. `We seldom fight,' says Jack despite their grueling work schedules and the constant decisions that have to be made. If you're looking for the people person, you'll find George up front managing staff, scheduling, hiring and training people and overseeing the Produce Department. Jack, on the other hand, is a product man. From his bench desk in the back of the store, he manages the Hardware and Housewares Departments. No doubt the brothers are handy and resourceful people. However, working as
many hours as they do, they gladly entrust some of the major responsibilities to guys like Larry Smith, one of their longest term employees, who runs the grocery department, and Al Langlois and Ron Swift who have the resourcefulness of a handyman. Supervisor Linda Conrad oversees the check-out counters and trains many of the new hires. Then there's 82-year-old Bill Fitzgerald, with a white apron over his work attire, who cruises the aisles helping customers. Bill says that he first
worked at the store in 1934, then after a number of years in the old drug stores in Hanover, came back in 1964. He's been at Dan & Whit's ever since. THE STORE `I use Dan & Whit's as part of my tour when showing property in Norwich. I
always tell my customers to look around Dan & Whit's and be sure to go to the back. It's awesome.'
-Brian Gardner, Realtor at The Gardner Agency, Main Street, Norwich In the 22,600 square feet of space, 13,000 of that is devoted to selling. The basement is as large as the main store where vast amounts of goods are stored as is
the huge supply of wood for the store's main source of heat--a large wood furnace. In former times, the store was heated by coal and then by oil. Now the Frasers use 16 to 20 cords of wood a year, most of it obtained by various arrangements Matt Fraser makes with loggers and wood lot owners. A back-up supply of split firewood is kept in the yard of Dan Fraser off Turnpike Road. In times of extreme cold, an old railroad stove in the basement is fired up. THE CUSTOMER IS EVERYTHING `We have a very serious responsibility to our customers, and if we can't serve them and the community, we are in trouble.'
-George Fraser The very lifeblood of Dan & Whit's is the customer. `Helping our customers is most important for our business--more than any kind of media advertising,' said George. `We train and orient our employees to be nice to them,' adds Jack. With so many products, helping the customer adjust to new products and changing
technology is a good example of the Dan & Whit's customer-friendly philosophy. Jack tells about the lady who came in to complain that the batteries she bought from Dan & Whit's weren't working. She overlooked the fact that she had to buy a charger for the batteries. `Customers do get confused,' he said. NO CASH REQUIRED `You know you have gone through an important rite of passage when you get to sign your name at Dan & Whit's-- which seems to happen in the 3rd or 4th grade.'
-Norwich attorney, Garfield Miller Local, down-home trust has been a hallmark of Dan & Whit's for years. How many
places do you know (and it's practically the year 2000) that still offer customer charge accounts. About 30% of Dan & Whit's customers have charge privileges which used to involve prepayments or deposits of up to $300, but that minor inconvenience has since been dropped. `Personal trust helped the store develop customer loyalty,' said George. `. . .
and it was also very convenient. If a customer forgot their checkbook or wallet, the store would carry them until the next time they came in.' | |
