When you’re in a rural area near a tourist destination, the secret to success is offering a plethora of goods and services. “We have restaurant-quality takeout, seasonal soft-serve ice cream, fresh-baked goods, beer and wine, tobacco, CBD products, maple syrup, Vermont-made products and souvenirs, live bait, hunting and fishing licenses, game reporting, lottery, minigolf, catering and summertime live music,” said Carrie Reed, comptroller and procurement manager for Otto’s Cones Point General Store in Poultney, Vermont.
The location near Lake St. Catherine means the store receives a steady stream of campers, hikers, fishers and hunters, along with the locals. “We’re not a restaurant and not your usual convenience store,” she said. “We have a little bit of everything because of our diverse clientele.”
Rebirth
Otto’s Cones Point has been around since the 1980s, but when owner Rosemary LaManna bought it in 2015, she leveled the building and built a new store with the same footprint. “She wanted to add a full kitchen, among other changes,” Reed said.
The kitchen allowed the store to expand its menu to club sandwiches, salads, hamburgers, soups and a full line of breakfast sandwiches, sausage and French toast. Baked goods are made fresh in-house. Daily specials are posted on Facebook and in the store.
The store also offers catering, although that has slowed because of the pandemic. Takeout has increased during COVID-19 as customers placed more to-go orders. “We had to stop serving food for in-store eating and moved to carryout only,” she said. Otto’s Cones Point also offered curbside service and delivered orders to some of the senior citizens in town. “We don’t normally offer delivery and only do special orders, but we continue to offer curbside pickup of foodservice and grocery orders.”
Once COVID is over, we’ll bring our Elvis impersonator back.
In the fall, the state of Vermont allowed restaurants to offer limited seating. “The requirement to gather names and phone numbers for contact tracing in case of a positive COVID-19 test means not as many customers are taking advantage of on-site dining,” she said. Early in the pandemic, the store had difficulty stocking some customer favorites, but now the usual brands and product mix have returned to normal. Other changes because of the pandemic include wrapping baked goods individually instead of housing them for self-serve in a glass container.
Otto’s posts daily specials—including soups like Karen’s Homemade Seafood Chowder—on its Facebook page. To-go orders increased during the pandemic, while catering slowed. Playing a round of minigolf on the c-store’s course is a popular pastime.
“We require everyone to wear masks, but I’ve instructed our mostly female staff not to argue with a customer over wearing one because we don’t want them to get into a confrontation with a potentially angry customer,” Reed said. That care of her co-workers goes both ways. “The staff have known each other for years, and we’re all very close,” she added. “Everyone’s very friendly and will go the extra mile for each other or our customers.”
A Different Experience
The coronavirus also shut down some of the store’s customer favorites. For example, Otto’s Cones Point usually has live music in the summer but had to put that on hold in 2020. Also taking a hiatus from the store’s calendar is the Christmas fair and chili cookoff—events where Otto’s Cones Point would bring a food cart to sell its restaurant fare.
“Once COVID is over, we’ll bring our Elvis impersonator back,” she said. “It’s a free event for our customers, who love this particular performer. People have a really good time at our music events, and we can’t wait to get everyone dancing again.”
However, the store’s 18-hole minigolf course was able to reopen. “The golf course is very popular, even in this time of COVID-19,” Reed said.
Overall, Otto’s Cones Point makes it a point to provide a special experience for all customers. “We try to show kindness and go above and beyond what they need,” Reed said. “You never know how someone’s day is going, and if we can make them leave our store with a smile and a good experience, then we feel like we’ve done our job.”
Bright Ideas
An online presence has become an even more important way to connect with customers in this time of social distancing. Otto’s Cones Point General Store has a website and Facebook page, where Carrie Reed, comptroller and procurement manager, posts specials and contests. For example, in the fall, Vermont ran a statewide promotion to encourage people to shop local—spend $30 pretax and receive $10 off. Reed posted about it on the store’s Facebook page to highlight the offer. “It brought in a little business as it gave people an incentive to try a new local store,” she said.
Reed also pays close attention to the store’s Google business page, ensuring that she replies to all the questions or comments posted there. “We concentrate more on our Facebook and Google page than on our website, which is more of an informational page,” she said. “With Facebook and Google, we have the opportunity to address any issue and resolve it for our customers more quickly.”