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By JOHN LIPPMAN

When Rajesh and Sheena Arora opened their Indian grocery and food market in Lebanon 20 years ago, they didn’t come across a lot of people in the Upper Valley like them.“There was not a huge Asian and Indian community in the Upper Valley in 2001,”...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

WOODSTOCK — The Woodstock Inn & Resort, the luxury hotel and anchor of the village’s economy, has named marketing and business development chief Courtney Lowe as president, with management oversight over all operations.Lowe, a longtime hospitality...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Two familiar Vermont names are getting a cozy place together in Quechee.Glassmaker and restaurant operator Simon Pearce and craft distiller WhistlePig are joining forces in the reopening of the Parker House tavern, which Simon Pearce purchased last...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

NORWICH — A new chapter is in the works at the Norwich Bookstore.Founders Penny McConnel and Liza Bernard, who have owned and run the independent bookstore for nearly 27 years, are selling their business to a Seattle couple who will take over next...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

NORTH HAVERHILL — A proposal by a biodiesel plant to increase production capacity is raising concerns among neighbors about its impact on health and the environment and raising complaints about lax enforcement of restrictions at Haverhill’s town-owned...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

When Brent Murray was a Lebanon paramedic, he frequently dealt with people in crisis and urgent need of help. He says that training is a good background for his newest venture.Murray and his wife and business partner, Cinnamon Murray, have completed...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

LEBANON — The high-profile building along Route 120 formerly known as the Element Hotel is assuming a new identity.It’s been closed since a Christmas Eve explosion and fire in 2019 crippled its mechanical system, and the owner of the building near the...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

On the morning of March 9, Mark Young, owner of Costumania, erected a sign out front in LaValley’s Colonial Plaza in West Lebanon to announce the costume store was closing and everything was 75% off.“I never thought I’d have to hang up one of those...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

The options for going out to get something to eat — or for eating in — will increase sharply come spring in Hanover.Nigel Leeming and Tony Barnett, owners, respectively, of mainstay Hanover restaurants Murphy’s on the Green and Molly’s, are each...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Rural general stores, given the number that have closed across the Upper Valley, are generally not considered hot growth businesses.But several well-known general stores in the region recently have been taken over by new owners who apparently see a...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

WOODSTOCK — Come Oct. 4, the Woodstock Pharmacy will have dispensed its last prescription.Owner Gary Smith said Friday that the 167-year-old pharmacy would soon end its run, confirming speculation that has swirled for weeks.Smith “concluded the best...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

WEST LEBANON — The Route 12A shopping strip has suffered a 1-2 punch.One week after Kmart revealed it would close its store, J.C. Penney has announced that its store in Upper Valley Plaza will be among the 154 stores the bankrupt retailer would close...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Kacey Knight says she typically hears two kinds of reactions from people when they learn she’s a supervisor on the “kill floor” at Vermont Packinghouse slaughterhouse in North Springfield, Vt.“It’s either ‘Oh, really?’ or ‘I don’t want hear about...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

For decades, Walmart had a hokey-but-warm tradition of greeting customers at the front door.The greeters have been phased out. Now the gates are being phased in.In a sign of our insecure times, Walmart’s West Lebanon store wants to install electronic...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Call it a healthy sign in how digital technology is reshaping Vermont’s economy. Or call it another dispiriting example in how making a real product just doesn’t count as much anymore.Either way, I don’t see it as something to cheer about.Airbnb is...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

WEST LEBANON — The Lindt Chocolate Shop off Route 12A will close on Jan. 29.Sarah Luhmann, property manager at Powerhouse Mall, said Lindt’s closing coincides with the store’s lease expiring at the end of the month.Stratham, N.H.-based Lindt &...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

It is, White River Valley residents attest, a small country store. And yet, as an august statesman said of another beloved local institution, there are those who love it.Sharon residents are talking about the Sharon Trading Post, the general store and...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

The nearly empty lot of cars at White River Hyundai on Sykes Mountain Avenue in White River Junction has had people wondering what’s up with the auto dealership.Now we know.Owner Rick MacLeay had been mum on the subject but last week disclosed to me...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

The Kmart store in West Lebanon might not seem special, but it has a singular status.With the recent announcement about stores slated for closing, the Kmart on Route 12A in West Lebanon will soon be the sole remaining Kmart in New Hampshire, Vermont...

By JOHN LIPPMAN

HANOVER — An 800-pound gorilla has weighed in on Hanover’s property assessment controversy, providing new ammunition to critics who argue the town’s 2018 revaluation was riddled with faulty calculations that confusingly raised some homeowners’...