Every ski area with lodging attached ends up with a general store, and it exists to solve a specific problem: a party that has driven three hours, arrived at a condominium in the dark, and discovered there is no coffee.
At the Berkshire mountains this is typically a small post-and-beam building near the base area, within walking distance of the lodging. It is the least interesting structure on the property and the one most worth knowing about on arrival.
What it stocks
Groceries, at the level of a well-run corner shop rather than a supermarket. Milk, bread, eggs, coffee, pasta, cereal, butter, snacks. Enough to cover breakfast and to fill gaps in a shop done elsewhere.
Prepared food — sandwiches, salads, sometimes hot items in the morning. This is the cheapest lunch on the property by a wide margin, and a sandwich bought here and carried to the base lodge costs a fraction of the cafeteria equivalent.
Beer, wine and spirits, which is the reason many people go. In a rural county where the nearest liquor store may be fifteen minutes away down a dark winter road, having it on site is a genuine convenience.
Coffee, all day, which matters more at eight in the morning than any of the above.
Firewood, for the properties with fireplaces.
Newspapers, magazines, games and puzzles, which sound like an afterthought until a wet afternoon or a storm day arrives with children in the house.
Souvenirs and basic equipment — hats, gloves, goggles, hand warmers, sunscreen, lip balm. This is the forgotten-item counter, and it is priced as such. It is still cheaper than driving into town.
Why it matters for self-catering
A party in a condominium or vacation house has a kitchen, and the kitchen is a large part of why they chose that accommodation — dining in the county ends early, and a group of eight is expensive to feed in restaurants. The reasoning is set out on area lodging.
The store makes that plan workable. The main shop should still be done at a supermarket in one of the larger towns on the way in, because the range and the prices are better. But nobody plans a three-day self-catering trip perfectly, and the store is what covers the gap on the second morning.
The practical routine that works: supermarket on the way in, store for whatever was forgotten, and one prepared-sandwich run for the ski day lunches.
Prices, honestly
Convenience store prices, which is to say noticeably above supermarket prices on everything and considerably above on some things.
That is the correct trade at eight in the morning on a Saturday and the wrong one for a week's groceries. Anyone treating it as the main shop will spend a surprising amount.
The categories where the premium is largest are the ones bought under duress — forgotten gloves, sunscreen, a phone charger. Packing properly is the cheaper option, and what to pack is covered on tips for a first day on the slopes.
Hours
Longer than the restaurants and shorter than a city visitor assumes. Early opening for the breakfast and coffee trade, and closing in the evening rather than late at night.
The important consequence is that a party arriving at ten on a Friday night may find it shut, which is exactly the arrival that most needs it. Provisioning on the road removes the problem.
Hours contract in the shoulder seasons along with everything else in the county, and in November and April the store may keep reduced days.
The wider point
The general store is a small illustration of something true about the whole county: this is a rural place with rural infrastructure, wearing a resort's clothing.
The museums are world-standard and the concert programme is serious, and the shops still close at six, the restaurants stop serving at eight, and the nearest supermarket to a ski area may be twenty minutes away. Visitors who plan around that have a good time. Visitors who assume city convenience spend a lot of the weekend in the car.
The general survey of how the county works is on about the Berkshires, and where to eat when self-catering stops being appealing is on restaurants.