SOUTH STRAFFORD — The nonprofit foundation overseeing the future of Coburns’ General Store has found a successor for the outgoing owners.

On May 2, the Strafford Community Trust announced that Adam Smith, of Tunbridge, will become the store’s new proprietor, taking over from longtime owners Sue, Melvin and Philip Coburn at the end of next month.

“We ... are really excited about this, we have a lot of trust in Adam,” said Trudi Brock, the trust’s president.

The announcement ends a period of uncertainty for the store, which the Coburns have operated since 1977.

A general store since the late 1800s, Coburns’ has long been a community hub for the people of South Strafford, who come to the store for groc eries and to catch up with one another.

The Coburns put the property on the market back in 2022, but when no viable offers came in, the trust was formed by Strafford and Upper Valley residents with the goal of purchasing the building and the business.

The trust has allocated $1.2 million for the purchase of Coburns’ and the remaining money will be used to repair the building’s infrastructure including the roof, foundation and fire alarm system. 

Smith’s 20 years of experience at the South Royalton Market, 10 of which were spent as manager, made him the ideal candidate to continue the Coburns’ legacy as a general store with a community focus, said Brock.

Smith, 45, first became interested in running the store after the Coburns announced their plans to retire.

But buying the store, which was listed at roughly $1.5 million, wasn’t an affordable option for him, so the idea fell by the wayside until the trust approached him about becoming the store’s proprietor.

“The more I thought about it, I was like that sounds like a really interesting opportunity,” he said.

Smith stepped away from his role as manager of the South Royalton Market early last year. The store had been growing steadily over the years and he needed a break. After he left, he took a job at Crystal Garden Herbs, the apothecary in Barnard, Vt., then pivoted to carpentry.

Compared to the South Royalton Market, which includes multiple departments and a board of directors, running Coburns’ struck Smith as a less hectic role. “There’s something appealing about a tight-knit, community-supported store,” he said. “It won’t feel as overwhelming.”

As proprietor, Smith will lease the store from the trust, as will Mascoma Bank and the U.S. Postal Service, which share the building with Coburns’. Smith’s lease is good for five years, with the option to renew in five-year increments, said Brock.

At this point, the trust hasn’t decided how much Smith will pay to lease the store, but it “will be a percentage of net profits,” said Brock. 

Smith will be required to purchase the store’s inventory of groceries, household goods, hardware products and basic clothing. An inventory company is scheduled to count and appraise the items in June, said Brock. 

For now, with the exception of some cleaning, reorganizing and updating of the store’s point-of-sale system, Smith doesn’t plan on making any major changes to Coburns’, although he would like to stock more local produce, and maybe add a simple menu of ready-made sandwiches.

A kind of one-stop-shop, the store is filled with rows of groceries, several coolers with drinks and ice cream, a deli counter and a coffee station.

“I want to do things kind of slowly and with input from the community,” he said.

The passing of the guard is slated for Saturday, June 30, although Smith plans to help out in the preceding weeks in order to learn the ropes. Melvin Coburn, 80, will also stay on as a consultant in the weeks following the changeover.

“We all want it to be a seamless transition,” Smith said.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.

CORRECTION: Coburns’ Ge neral Store is owned by Melvin, Sue and Philip Coburn. A previous version of this story provided an incomplete list of the owners.