Tips for Shopping in Vermont

There are many reasons to visit Vermont; the view afforded as you crest a hill, the spring melt cascading along ancient river courses as the banks bloom with nascent flowers, the majestic slopes of the Green Mountains with their white mantle acting as a magnet to every kind of winter sports enthusiast, a picturesque covered bridge transporting you across the river and back in time over a hundred years. Add to these pastoral pleasures the cornucopia of bargains to be found at the Forget-Me-Not shop, in Johnson. The town itself, nestled in the Lamoille Valley, has much to offer; Johnson Woolen Mills, the Studio Center, an artists retreat, and several shops and restaurants such as the Loving Cup and Winding Brook, which serve the most delicious local produce. A mile or so outside of Johnson, on the road to Burlington, I regularly passed what reminded me of nothing more than an old log trading post, long, low and blending in with it's environs the only advertisement is a decorative and elegant sign before a well-tended parking lot.

The building is fronted by a covered walkway paved with slabs of slate (quarrying, forestry and farming were the mainstays of Vermont long before tourism) behind a rainbow-hued rock-garden. Rustic, rough-hewed benches provide a popular place of meditation for the men to sit and enjoy the view, sipping on the excellent complementary Green Mountain Roasted coffee, while the serious shopping is enacted inside. The pillars are made of cedar tree-trunks, with just the bark stripped off, perfectly blending into the bucolic landscape, giving the impression that the shop may have just grown there rather than being built! Across the valley the peaks have a purple hue, merging into the sky to give an ephemeral aspect while the rear of the cabin is a steep hill, densely populated with stands of towering pine.

The first impression on entering the store is that you have stepped into a timbered Aladdin's cave. Twin-level racks packed with pants and blouses, spiral racks festooned with swimsuits. Beams bedecked with a vast array of jewelry and accessories, every conceivable type of dress for every occasion. Prior to visiting the store I purchased socks in the manner that most men employ, walk to the sock department, pick up a pack and go to the counter. There is something in the air at Forget-Me-Not that makes you want to learn more. They have a whole wall dedicated to men's socks and over the course of an hour I discovered more about this simple item than I ever thought possible, winter socks of Merino wool, light cotton summer socks, dress socks, patterned wool socks, odor-eaters, a man could lay the foundations of a well-stocked wardrobe in such an emporium. And I was not alone; over the course of several idle afternoons I listened to men and women exclaiming over the plethora of choice. In some ways the store is like those ingenious Russian boxes; as you open one you find another object of beauty nestling inside. Wandering from one department to the next I am amazed that there is so much of interest packed into the store.

Maybe it is the density of the quality goods that stimulates me. I must admit to feeling exhausted as soon as I am dragged into a mall-anchor department store. The very vastness of the place is tiring and inevitably one has to trudge from cunningly-devised display to a showcase remarkable for it's paucity of items. There is the inevitable feeling that I am being told what to choose, 'No, sir, these are the latest fashions, we no longer carry the other kind.' At Forget-Me-Not I can feel like a customer,free to browse amongst a plethora of fascinating and appealing goods. I know little of the retail trade, but I am told that they sell 'Off-price clothing'. Often, the larger stores order vast quantities of a line that fails to sell in quite the quantity and haste the buyer envisaged, the unsold items are then moved through outlets such as Forget-Me-Not for less than half of the original price. This obviously provides a double benefit, not only can you find exactly what you are looking but you can afford to buy several of them! All in all one of the few times in my life that I have actually enjoyed shopping. I'm not sure that I would recommend making a special trip from New York just to shop there, but I would certainly insist that anybody passing through the area make whatever detour they have to for the sake of a most enjoyable experience.