The typical Vermont country store exemplifies high touch, low tech, and the 181-year-old Lincoln General Store is no exception. In early October, its weathered red door bore a hand-drawn sign for this season's rifle buck pool. Generations of footsteps have buffed all traces of stain and polish from the long, narrow floorboards. "Ninety percent of our customers, I know their names and their story," store general manager Jennifer Smith said. Smith, 57, has spent more than half her life in the Addison County town of 1,300. Nestled at the foot of Mount Abraham, Lincoln sees a steady flow of cyclists, hikers and leaf peepers until the Lincoln Gap Road closes from mid-October to May and locals have the town to themselves again. The store doesn't use a barcode scanner to ring up orders of locally baked bread, cases of Bud Light, deli sandwiches and house-baked sweets, such as addictive salted-caramel shortbread bars. Out-of-towners, Smith said, are always amazed that regulars can grab a gallon of Monument Farms milk on credit and pay at month's end. While AI gobbles up our personal data for nefarious purposes, the humans who work at the Lincoln store use their intelligence to offer new-baby congratulations, check on someone's health or deliver birthday wishes — all witnessed during a recent visit. But for all its low-tech bona fides, the Lincoln General Store owes its continued existence to the success of one of Vermont's most prominent high-tech companies: South Burlington-based Beta Technologies, one of the country's leading developers of electric aircraft. In 2023, Lincoln was at risk of losing what resident Karen Swanson called "the nerve center of the town." After more than 30 years of selling groceries, weighing in deer and even pulling out wiggly teeth that kids didn't trust their parents to remove, the store's beloved owner and storekeeper, Vaneasa Stearns, reluctantly decided to sell due to her declining health. The quest to save the small-town general store has become increasingly common in Vermont; reasons include increased competition from chains such as Dollar General, staffing challenges and the skyrocketing cost of maintaining old buildings. The most recent announcements of potential closures have come from Buxton's Store in Orwell and Bliss Village Store and Deli in Bradford. Concerned about the future of their cherished market, a group of Lincoln residents approached Preservation Trust of Vermont, which has helped a number of towns in similar…