New England If you don’t build it, they surely will not come.

[KingGrump]

The Killington area is pretty much dead until Columbus day weekend for the leaf peeking season. There is no real town there. Just the access road and a few shops on route 4.
Even though Ludlow is a small town there are people there all year round. With or without the tourist. But it is pretty quiet during the summer.
The Stratton, Bromley and Magic area has Manchester as the "local town." Manchester saw a resurgence a long while back. It transformed itself into a outlet shopping stop for tourist. Got really busy for a while. Now it's dying again. Just like most B&M retailing.

 

[James]

Mrs Murphy's Donuts in Manchester!
Plus Northshire Bookstore and RK Miles Lumber etc.
Outlets- most are crap you can't buy elsewhere with inflated retail prices so it looks like it's cheap.

 

[KingGrump]

The Northshire Bookstore is a gem. Andrew spent lots of time in there. He is a prolific reader.
RK Miles is a good browsing hardware store. Good selection and really interesting place to browse through. There used to another good hardware store across the street, Brown & Hitchcock. Bought tons of stuff from them when we used to work on the house back in the 80's.

True about outlet shopping. Bad s**t at inflated prices. I am sure Mr. Lifshitz will not be found dead wearing a tee shirt with my name on it.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I absolutely agree.
Do stuff.
Plan events
Promote summer activities

When people show up after spending time and money to travel to your destination, only to find half(or more) of the places closed, they won't plan another trip there.
.

This! Big Bear Lake has done a great job at promoting itself as a year round resort. It does have the added advantage of a large lake with two public launches. But it holds Octoberfest, Village Wine Walk, the Tour de Big Bear weekend of riding events, Chili tasting/competition, BBQ state finals, multiple car shows, a Renaissance Fair, etc. This community depends on tourism for our survival. Everything is open holidays. It's when the town is at its busiest. Our full time population is about 7000 and we see close to 250,000 on big weekends.

 

[CalG]

The probz with this thinking is that the it neglects the interconnected relationships of the ski areas.

If you want better economy/jobs/housing- as discussed here many times over, you need to be open. Otherwise tourists mountain bike / hike / camp & then drive away with their cash..... & may not return.

It’s about the experience!

Tell that to the banker holding the note.

You should try the restaurant gig some time. A real eye opener into the world of hard knocks!

 

[surfsnowgirl]

The Killington area is pretty much dead until Columbus day weekend for the leaf peeking season. There is no real town there. Just the access road and a few shops on route 4.
Even though Ludlow is a small town there are people there all year round. With or without the tourist. But it is pretty quiet during the summer.
The Stratton, Bromley and Magic area has Manchester as the "local town." Manchester saw a resurgence a long while back. It transformed itself into a outlet shopping stop for tourist. Got really busy for a while. Now it's dying again. Just like most B&M retailing.

We mostly avoid Manchester and stay on our side of the mountain. The only time we go there is if we must have Starbucks or want a $5 bloody on sunday from Fireflys.

 

[James]

We mostly avoid Manchester and stay on our side of the mountain. The only time we go there is if we must have Starbucks or want a $5 bloody on sunday from Fireflys.

You should go to Mrs Murphy’s. It’s like the 70’s in there. (The good, bad, ugly) Even older looking than Magic! Especially as Magic’s gone all like 21st century lift now.
Plus there’s the theater in Dorset next door.

I used to go to Manchester years ago for the Tobacconist which I think is gone. Not easy to find clove cigs.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

You should go to Mrs Murphy’s. It’s like the 70’s in there. (The good, bad, ugly) Even older looking than Magic! Especially as Magic’s gone all like 21st century lift now.
Plus there’s the theater in Dorset next door.

I used to go to Manchester years ago for the Tobacconist which I think is gone. Not easy to find clove cigs.

We'll have to check out Mrs murphys. I do like that package store in depot street, all the beer and whisky one could ever want. I do sorta like the underground because they have Sip of Sunshine on draft. There's also this specialty foot guy I keep meaning to go to see. He makes orthotics for people like me. He's inside one of the clothing/shoe/outdoorsy places in the main area.

 

[KingGrump]

Even though they are installing it in the 21st century, the new chair at Magic is the old Snowbowl quad chair from Stratton. That makes it 20th century.

We always walk through Manchester Woodcraft. It is amazing to see simple items make from real solid wood. Andrew loves that place. He has been browsing through that shop since he could walk. Always come out with some knick knack. As if we don't have enough scrap wood.

We usually stop at the water fall by Malfunction Junction for Andrew to throw rocks into the water. I heard from him they fenced that area off this year. Probably so Darwin reject of a tourist fell in.

Wow, Dorset. That is a blast from the past. We leased a log cabin there for couple of season back in 1981/1982. Haven't been there for may be 20 years.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We like the kitchen gadget shop in Manchester. A friend of mines parents live in Dorset. Generally speaking it isn't really our side of town but nice to visit once in a while.

Only go to Stratton area on Columbus weekend for the sales. Although honey pie is nice once in a while. My slaloms will be going to starting gate house come October for theor pre season spa treatment.

Favorite place is seesaws in Peru because their duck poutine is killer and they have Sip of Sunshine on draft.

I've heard jj hapgoods in Peru is good so we'll try there one of these days.

Dead time is stick season in November til turkey weekend. This is when we cook because noone is open.

 

[Tominator]

... I've heard jj hapgoods in Peru is good so we'll try there one of these days....

Paul McCartney had dinner there a few years back!

 

[Wilhelmson]

On the island in Maine over the 4th the white store only had vanilla ice cream, $6 cones at that! I don't know if they were still making pizza. The other store has regular convenience store ice cream novelties.

When we rented in Twin Mountain I used to say everything is 30 minutes away, except for the mountains of course. The places near the hotel were on the pricey side. Ashleys was a good dive bar until they sold to a condo development. Northern Lights was run by a nice young couple but that closed up.

Why is Killington devoid of a brew pub?

Pretty sure the hipsters in mrv drink all the craft beer beer before it can get that far south.

The must be somewhere to buy a $20 grass fed Vermont angus burger with fries for an extra $7.50.

 

[Brian Likes Pow]

If you fill a restaurant 2 days a week and sit mostly empty the other 5 you are losing money.

If you only open 2 days a week then you will never ever find decent staff that can support themselves on a 2-3 day workweek.

And restaurant workers can't very easily find a second restaurant job to supplement as that job will want them on Saturdays and Sundays.

Welcome to my nightmare....

 

[James]

The must be somewhere to buy a $20 grass fed Vermont angus burger with fries for an extra $7.50.

It's Stowe-Spruce. But you get fries, and I think it was around $15.

 

[Scruffy]

Killington is a hard sell for off season. The draw is the mountain, for skiing. There is no town, just an access road filled with shops and hotels that support skiing, and the access road is on a steep grade, not something that could easily support a walking town of shops for the non-skier. They're trying the down hill mountain biking thing, but apparently that's still a niche market.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Killington is a hard sell for off season. The draw is the mountain, for skiing. There is no town, just an access road filled with shops and hotels that support skiing, and the access road is on a steep grade, not something that could easily support a walking town of shops for the non-skier. They're trying the down hill mountain biking thing, but apparently that's still a niche market.

To make downhill mtb accessible to families they need to provide a lot of beginner trails, especially xc and fire roads. I think the concept scares a lot of families away.so they need to diversify their offerings.

While the ski village concept seems a bit hokey sometimes, Watervillle stays active in the summer and I bet Stratton and Tremblant do as well. Without the village Waterville would be in no man's land and people would likely continue on to Lincoln/Kancamangus. The dynamics are different but even down here in the suburbs there's a push for more housing to drive economic expansion.

We've camped at the nfs site about 1/2 mile from Waterville Valley. Waterville has a small village with lodging, restaurants, ice cream, and a few shops that stays active in the summer. There's a small pond with fishing, swimming, canoe and paddeboat rentals They have enough beginner mtb trails to keep the bike shop busy with rentals. They're in a good spot with close proximity to Boston, direct access to hiking a few easier 4000 foot mountains, and numerous swimming holes in the area. They also have free concerts, festivals, a dive bar, and occasional fireworks.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Wow, Dorset. That is a blast from the past. We leased a log cabin there for couple of season back in 1981/1982. Haven't been there for may be 20 years.

A few years ago I was at the high point of Dorset Quarry looking at the drop. It took two 20 year old girls behind me to get me moving. It's amazing it's still open with young people partying and families picnicking all in a small area.

 

[sparty]

If you fill a restaurant 2 days a week and sit mostly empty the other 5 you are losing money.

If you only open 2 days a week then you will never ever find decent staff that can support themselves on a 2-3 day workweek.

And restaurant workers can't very easily find a second restaurant job to supplement as that job will want them on Saturdays and Sundays.

Welcome to my nightmare....

...and aside from the occasional respite after a holiday weekend, no tipped worker wants slow shifts. Not only do you make less money, but (IMO) working on cleaning tasks or staring at the ceiling is a heck of a lot less interesting than taking care of customers.

Another wrinkle in service-industry staffing is that overall unemployment right now is pretty damn low. That's going to make it a lot harder to find people who want to show up, work hard, and provide good customer service, particularly at a place that sees huge traffic fluctuations from week to week. There was an article in one of the Maine papers recently about understaffed restaurants on the coast because they simply couldn't find anyone to fill the roles (let alone motivated and experienced employees).

 

[sparty]

Oh, and about Killington in particular—not only is the local population limited, but the winter seasonal demand is huge. Figure how many people it takes to fill the parking lots, and consider that they do fill up on the busy weekends, particularly with out-of-state tourists. Even a third of those tourists didn't have other interests (such as boats and beaches) in the summer, that's a lot of people that aren't around to support the restaurants and bars. I'd bet that even with many of the access-road establishments on summer hiatus, Killington has a higher restaurant-to-resident ratio than most places.

 

[Brian Finch]

SMH Vermont.