With fall foliage season at hand, New England general stores are getting ready for their annual influx of leaf-peeping visitors.
And the stores will be relying on their usual combination of nostalgia and offbeat services to bring ’em in.
With creaky wooden floors, penny-candy counters and merchandise that runs the gamut from snow shovels to wedding dresses, these fixtures of small-town Yankee life have evolved into an eclectic mix that manage to compete in a Walmart era.
They include Hastings Store in West Danville where there’s a full-service post office and the third-generation owners dish out homemade sausages and doughnuts.