PUTNEY — The Putney General Store will remain open, even though store operator Ming Chou will leave this summer.
That's the vow from the Putney Historical Society, the nonprofit that owns the building.
Historical Society board member Lyssa Papazian said that Chou, who is working toward a smooth transition with the board, is coping with health concerns, and with no family in the area to help with the store and serve as backup, “it's not doable for him.”
“We certainly expected to see him here a long time,” Papazian said of Chou, who signed a 20-year lease for the space in 2011. “We'll be sad to see him go.”
Attempts to reach Chou at the store were unsuccessful.
Papazian said that the board has encouraged Chou to list the business for sale, and she said that Chou has maintained a transparency with the board about the store's “healthy, strong, and growing” operations and finances, a characterization that she said was confirmed by an independent grocery consultant who analyzed the store's business health.
In addition to the inventory and equipment, Chou brings to the table a “healthy customer count” and the “goodwill he created out of nothing,” Papazian said.
“At the same time, we're exploring the possibility of hiring a manager and taking [the store] over ourselves,” Papazian said.
The building was constructed from the ground up after a 2008 fire leveled the historic structure on the site. With help from the Preservation Trust of Vermont and community investors, the Historical Society purchased the store, which had been the longest continually operating general store in the state's history.
The Historical Society was on the home stretch of finishing renovations in 2009 when a fire - later determined to be arson - consumed the building in 2009.
Chou, from Sterling, Mass., told The Commons in 2011 that he fell in love with the old Putney General Store more than a decade ago on a trip to Vermont and twice tried to buy it before the fires intervened.
“We will miss him,” Papazian said, describing Chou as “an incredibly generous person” who “gives at the drop of a hat” to community causes and organizations.
Whatever happens with Chou, she said, “We're going to keep this thing open, one way or another.”