Adamant Cooperative Store
Celebrates 50 Years-plus

by Barbara Floersch

Sitting squarely at the junction of all incoming roads, the small Adamant Cooperative Store is literally the center of the village of Adamant. As the organizer of dances, foliage bazaars, Fourth of July festivities and the supplier of groceries, the store is figuratively the center of Adamant as well. But historically, the modest little store is a living reminder of the cooperative movement that swept the nation during the depths of the Great Depression, and through its offspring, the Washington Electric Cooperative and the Adamant Credit Union, it touches the lives of thousands.

In the early 1930s folks in Adamant were concerned about their need for readily available supplies at reasonable prices. Based on literature obtained from the Cooperative League of the United States, in April, 1935, eleven families invested $5.00 each to begin an experiment that in August of that year resulted in the incorporation of the first cooperative in the State of Vermont. Through working together towards a common goal, the small community established a grocery of its very own.

Perhaps it was this success, in part, that inspired the store's board of directors to tackle another pressing community problem - the lack of electricity. With the backing of the Rural Electrification Act of 1935, the group formed the Washington Electric Cooperative. Since the Cooperative was formed, it has burgeoned into a major source of power for the county.

At the heart of the cooperative movement is the ideal of service to the community, and in 1942 the store established the first state-chartered credit union in Vermont. In order to join the Credit Union a person must be a stockholder in the store. Eventually, the credit union merged with the North Country Federal Credit Union in East Montpelier.

The unique challenges of the present are modern circumstances that render the store unable to compete with the lower prices and extensive offerings of the large area supermarkets. Even besieged by a host of modern problems the store continued as the center of the community and its activities diverse.

This is a condensed version of the article appearing in Central Vermont Magazine Winter 1985/86 issue. For information on where to locate these magazines contact the Chamber at 229-5711.

Thanks are extended to Earline Marsh, Alan Noyes, Elizabeth Ralph, Sally Finn and Jack Belding for their time selecting and editing Central Vermont Magazine articles for publication on the web.

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