QUECHEE — Singleton’s Market, which opened with fanfare six years ago as the first fresh grocer between Hartford and Woodstock, closed without warning on Thursday, surprising shoppers and residents who prized the market’s deli sandwiches at a roadside stop reminiscent of old-time Vermont.
“The summers were good, but it just wasn’t working in the winter,” said Tom Singleton, who with his wife Linn Singleton opened the Quechee store managed by a succession of family members in 2013. Singleton said the influx of people during the summer recreational season provided a steady stream of customers, but traffic would sharply fall off during the winter months.
The Singleton family, who have operated a market and general store in Proctorsville, Vt., since 1973, spent several years scouting for a second location and settled on the Route 4 site, where they built the 7,000-square-foot building with a front porch and separate smokehouse and placed a life-size black fiberglass steer out front easily visible to passing motorists.
Heather Carey, a manager at home furnishings store Design Center and Gallery at Anichini in Quechee, described Singleton’s closing as “devastating,” saying she “went there all the time,” especially for the market’s wagyu beef, which she hadn’t been able to find elsewhere in the Upper Valley.
Although a vegetarian, Carey, who also lives in Quechee, said she still preferred to buy meat, which she cooked for family members, from Singleton’s because of the butcher’s helpfulness.
“They taught me how to grill steak, how to put your thumb on it to test for medium rare,” Carey said, as well as the different cuts of the steer and how they differ from each other.
“They will be greatly missed in this area,” she said.
Known for its bacon, ham, poultry, pepperoni, meats and dozens of varieties of sausage smoked with corn cobs on the premises, Singleton’s menu of 28 different sandwiches — the “Singleton’s Smokehouse” (smoked ham, smoked turkey, smoked bacon and smoked cheddar with lettuce and maple mustard on wheat bread) was a favorite — also made the market a popular destination for lunch or pick-up on the way home after work.
But only a few months after Singleton’s opened in 2013, Jake’s Quechee Market, offering a similar grocery and deli, opened only a couple thousand yards east on Route 4 and vied for many of the same customers.
Although each business had been aware of the other’s plans from the beginning — they both went before the Hartford Planning Board for site approval at the same meeting in 2012 — Singleton’s found itself unable to weather the winter months despite the high demand for its signature smoked meats.
James Kerrigan, general manager of Jake’s Quechee Market, acknowledged that the “seasonality of the location can be a challenge” and “managing those transitions can be difficult. We’ve found a way to make it work, but we’ve had to make lots of changes over the years” — such as partnering with Skinny Pancake to operate the cafe side of the business.
Singleton, echoing a common theme among small Upper Valley businesses, said the Quechee location also had a difficult time finding and retaining employees, especially as new chain box stores have opened over the past year in West Lebanon.
Besides grocery and deli items, the market also sold old Vermont general store staples such as outdoor apparel and boots.
Singleton, however, said despite the overlap, he didn’t see his store undercut by Jake’s as much as it was impacted by markets in West Lebanon, especially when seasonal residents fled.
“There was the proximity of the box stores in West Lebanon,” he said. “And winter just dumped on us.”
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
