Usually a town’s first business and frequently the burg’s raison d’etre, the general store was a lifeline for townspeople and rural residents who depended on its goods to survive, and its environs for social contact. It was a place to exchange news and share advice with neighbours and visitors in places that were often in far-flung, isolated parts of the province.

You could get almost anything at the general store, and what wasn’t there could be ordered. Salt was sold by the bushel to preserve foods. Bolts of fabric and coveted ready-made wear clothed the citizenry. Meats were a staple, as were brooms, but you could also pick up a violin or a jeweled hair comb. Coffee, flour, pickles, fruit, vegetables and spices were bought in bulk by storeowners and measured into jars or tied into in brown paper parcels according to customers’ grocery lists. Money owed for goods would routinely be added to customers’ accounts.

Because store staff retrieved and sorted every item, there was no such thing as a fast trip to the store. However, customers gladly passed the time chatting and watching for friends and familiar faces.

Some of Muskoka’s original general stores are still in business, and autumn is the perfect time to pay them a visit during a driving tour to catch Mother Nature’s cavalcade of colour.

In the friendly village of Rosseau, located at the northern tip of Lake Rosseau at Hwys. 141 and 632, the Rosseau General Store is a tourist destination as well as the area’s best place for fresh produce, meat, hardware and groceries.

Built in 1874, the exterior of the two-storey white frame building, with its vintage storefront windows, looks the same as it does in photos taken over a century ago. The original store soon grew, with a rear addition for more grocery space and a meat counter. Later, the summer kitchen in the storeowner’s adjoining home became a hardware section.

With creaky wooden floors, an ancient bank calendar that displays the date one day at a time and shelves of antiques circling the upper walls, walking into the Rosseau General Store is like time travelling. The trip is worth taking, even if your pantry is full.

Current owners Brian and Cheryl Fright bought the store, sight unseen, 10 years ago on a hunch. Their hunch proved right, and the couple’s love for their business shows both in the unaltered architecture of the store, and the many customers who greet them by name year-round in true general store tradition.

In a book about general stores, Cheryl points out a photo of previous owner Ben Tassie, and an early 20th century picture showing the store from front to back, down the right-hand aisle. The knots and dips in the wooden floor, the handmade shelving and soaring archway in the middle of the store are the same as today. The only changes are modern necessities like pop fridges and LED bulbs in the ceiling fan lights, and personal touches like the addition of the Tassie’s daughter’s ballet barre as a stairway handrail.

“I was amazed, I was so excited when I saw this picture,” says Cheryl. “The book says people who run general stores are committed to it because they believe in hospitality for customers. And I thought yes, that’s why we do this.”

On the Muskoka/Haliburton border in the hamlet of Dorset sits another original general store: Robinson’s.

Owned and operated since 1921 by three generations of the Robinson family, the store began as a 1,200-square-foot establishment serving locals and loggers. That original store, now the tin-ceilinged dry goods area that includes Robinson’s renowned moccasins, expanded into 15,000 square feet through 15 additions. Foodland and Home Hardware opened within the store during the 1980s, followed by the second floor Red Onion gift shop and ladies’ boutique. Robinson’s became a year-round place to visit as well as a place to shop.

Native Muskokans Harry and Marguerite Robinson, grandparents of current owner Joanne Robinson, opened the business and lived in an apartment above the store.

“Whenever they had a little money ahead after a season, they would put on an addition,” explains Joanne. “That’s why the store has a unique shape.”

Son Brad, Joanne’s father, eventually took over the store, raising his family in the same apartment. He is still active in the business and likes nothing better than being in the store.

“It’s very unusual for a family business to last to the third generation,” says Joanne, whose husband Willie Hatton runs the grocery operation. “The way I remember my grandfather Robinson is standing outside of the front of the store, smoking his pipe and talking to people. That was basically his job — he was the original greeter. Before that, of course, he was up to his elbows in everything.”

Sixteen years ago, Joanne and Willie took a two-year leave from jobs at IBM in Toronto to try running the store. During the second year, they knew they had come home. Their 16-year-old son Ryan arrived as a six-week-old infant and grew up in the store.

Perhaps Robinson’s history will include a fourth generation.

Overlooking the canal that joins lakes Rosseau and Joseph, Silver Stream Farms is a grocery store that doesn’t call itself a general store, but definitely operates in the spirit of the tradition.

The Port Sandfield institution carries a large variety of products unavailable anywhere else in Muskoka, plus fresh local and Ontario produce, premium meats and baked goods people dream of all winter. And you can buy radio-controlled boats, planes, cars and surfers.

Silver Stream staff offer to carry groceries down to the docks, and remember customers’ names. In the general store tradition, the business runs customer accounts. No pocket for a wallet in that swimsuit? No problem.

“In spring, we bring in specialty items like preserves and jams, as well as mustards and barbecue sauces — everyone wants to try something different,” says manager Peter Jansen. “We carry some basic lines as well, but we try to bring in different products every year. Some people stock up on products like spices and especially Barbarians Steak Sauce for the winter.”

In autumn, traffic-stopping giant pumpkins from co-owners Bruce and Steve Watford’s eponymous farm in Richmond Hill decorate the store’s sidewalks. Inside, people can still buy the farm’s super sweet corn, and made-on-site breads and Chelsea buns. But, alas, the homemade doughnut season is over.

“We make our own doughnuts all summer and we get requests for them from the moment we open our doors in the spring,” says Jansen, whose store now closes for the winter a few weeks after Thanksgiving. “Cherry doughnuts were introduced this year, along with the regular blueberry and apple cinnamon cider. One lady from California said she never eats doughnuts until she comes here.”

The store routinely orders new items on customer request.

“It’s a very intimate service level,” says Jansen. “We know customers by name, and they can come to the deli for a sandwich, ask for their usual and get it. That says something about our staff.”