This story by Aaron Calvin was first published in the News & Citizen on May 29.
For nearly two years, there was no way to consistently purchase fresh produce in Johnson. The newly opened Johnson General Store changed that.
Since the Sterling Market closed following the flood of July 2023 and the grocer that operated it decided not to reopen the location, which had been repeatedly inundated over the years at its vulnerable position at the confluence of the Lamoille and Gihon rivers, the town had been without a grocery store.
The restaurants, gas stations, the dollar store and the Foote Brook farm stand in the summer months have helped fill the void, but fresh vegetables could only be acquired during the long winter months by taking a trip to Morrisville, which is seven miles away if you live in the village and even farther if you live outside of it, and only an option for those who have a car to drive.
With a grocery store’s return to the former Sterling Market location looking increasingly doubtful, longtime resident Mike Mignone and his wife Haley Newman stepped in to fill the gap by opening the Johnson General Store on Lower Main Street.
During the noon hour last Friday, a steady flow of customers signaled that the store, which opened May 9, is already settling in as part of the community. From behind the register, Newman said monitoring what sells fast and soliciting feedback from customers is helping the store owners learn what works and what doesn’t.
“We keep selling out of things that we didn’t necessarily expect would go so quickly,” Newman said. “There are certain things, like fresh produce, that we don’t want to order in large quantities and have them go bad, but then we’re selling them immediately and running out of different things.”
Mignone, who previously ran Hangry Mike’s food truck and has a background in the restaurant industry, had planned to open something similar, but after participating in the Reimagine Johnson initiative organized by Vermont Council for Community Development, where increasing food access had emerged as a vital goal for the community in the wake of the 2023 flood, he and Newman decided to prioritize a general store instead.
Supported by community members and the emerging food access task force, Mignone and Newman have put their own capital and equity on the line to open the store in the building they’re leasing from the former operators of the Get Yours head shop.
They’ve taken out loans from both the town and the village revolving loan funds — which are meant to encourage just such a community-oriented operation — filling the gap with their own savings and ensuring all the requirements for the licenses they needed were met, all while managing a family that includes two elementary school-age kids and a fifteen-month-old.
In February, a few months after Mignone announced his intent to open the general store, the Sterling Market property owners announced they would pursue a property buyout, ending speculation that a grocer might return to that location and making the need for the general store ever more urgent. Associated Grocers of New England, the former operator of the Sterling Market, is now the general store’s supplier.
The response Newman and Mignone have gotten from the community so far has primarily been gratitude.
“So much gratitude, so many smiles, so much excitement,” Newman said. “It’s really made all of the headaches and stresses of the past six months trying to get open worth it.”
A variety of fruit, vegetables, pantry staples and dry goods line evenly spaced shelves in the closely kept but clean, well-lit space. There are plenty of locally and regionally produced goods, and Newman said there’s more on the way. Occasional empty space on the shelves marks where customers have been particularly enthusiastic, and Mignone has already rolled out some ready-made options in a warming case at the back of the store.
At the community forums held as part of the Reimagine Johnson process, many remarked that it wasn’t the food they missed most about the Sterling Market, but its role as a place where shoppers ran into their neighbors.
The Johnson General Store is cozier than the old grocery store, and options more limited, but neighbors are already showing up. It’s the first general store in Johnson since Facey’s General Store, which last advertised in the News & Citizen in 1976, though DJ’s Corner Store and Deli had served a similar role in the same location well into the 2000s before its deli case was swapped out for glass pipes.
Johnson newcomer Joy Novakowski, who stopped by on Friday for a cup of coffee and a muffin to go, said food access had been important to her and her partner, and they had joined the food access task force when they came to town.
As with the recent monumental move of the Johnson Public Library from its longtime, flood-prone home on Railroad Street to higher ground at Legion Field, Novakowski sees the general store as part of Johnson’s changing narrative.
“It’s not only an essential hub, but socially, this is where we meet our neighbors,” she said. “With a community that’s trying to rebuild itself in so many ways and has the capacity to retain and grow, what does that story look like for Johnson when we’re actually nourishing the residents and people who are coming through to visit, too?”
The Johnson General Store’s story is just beginning, but just getting its doors open has felt like a monumental accomplishment to Mignone.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us, but it’s been nice to be actually running the store,” he said.
“We’re just relieved that we made it,” Newman said. “There were so many moments of like, ‘Are we ever going to open the doors?’ Because it was just roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, and then waiting on different permits and licenses, and then that final week, everything came together.”
