Brattleboro still thrives on retail

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 01, 1997 by Marcel, Joyce

One activity GBU has already undertaken is sending its members to ride the "Snow Train" from Boston to Brattleboro, offering shopping tips and enthusiasm to the sightseers.

"The Snow Train comes out of Boston once a year in February," Simons said. "More than 900 people board the train. It stops in Brattleboro, Putney and Bellows Falls. Another train, out of Mystic, Connecticut, comes though at foliage time. GBU sent some ambassadors down to Boston to ride the train back. Their mission was to hand out material from stores and businesses downtown and answer questions people might have. It's a beginning."

Manufacturing and wholesale distribution companies today are finding a healthy economy in Brattleboro, said Phil Steckler, vice president of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp, past president of the chamber, and a principal of CBI, Inc, which buys and sells businesses in the $100,000-to-$20 million range.

According to him, "The town looks good and is good," especially for businesses that do not specifically rely on local activity.

"Businesses that have customers on a nationwide or international basis tend to be doing fairly well," Steckler said. "Over the past four or five years, we've seen a healthy comeback from the recession. Most businesses seem to be doing better."

Steckler is finding that he is selling more local businesses in the $100,000-to-$400,000 range to local people.

"People who buy businesses are either middle-to-upper corporate management people who want to control their own destiny, or downsized people who have no other alternative," Steckler said. "And 40 to 50 percent of the sales are coming from within this region. Traditionally, 80 to 90 percent of the buyers were people outside the region. Now, local people are seeing business ownership as a way to make a living. It's fun to deal with your friends and neighbors."

For the future, retail will probably continue to be the most viable part of the Brattleboro economy, Steckler said, despite the hindrance of the sales tax.

"It's our catalyst; the heart and soul of the community," Steckler said. "Brattleboro has done a great job. Go up and down the river. What's the only vibrant community? This one. The sales tax has devastated Springfield and White River unction. Look at it. All the retail went into that strip in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Once one sensitive business moves across the river, others follow. Supermarkets follow, even though there's no differential, restaurants follow, and your automobile businesses follow. So we've lost jobs and state income taxes because we've chased business across the river. Here, retail business has held up well."