{"id":2135,"date":"2012-02-08T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T16:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2012-04-10T17:42:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T17:42:49","slug":"seeing-the-good-in-the-goodness-store-in-east-douglas-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/?p=2135","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Good in The Goodness Store in East Douglas, Mass."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Goodness Store and News Room Restaurant in East Douglas, Mass., might have faded signs outside, but inside you&#8217;ll find a hometown business with no signs of fading.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2136\" aria-labelledby=\"figcaption_attachment_2136\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 600px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/East-Douglas-Store.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2136 \" title=\"East-Douglas-Store\" src=\"http:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/East-Douglas-Store-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Goodness Store, East Douglas, Mass. (photo by Eric)\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"figcaption_attachment_2136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goodness Store, East Douglas, Mass. (photo by Eric)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This old-time variety store that has been around forever won&#8217;t win any beauty contests, mind you, but it&#8217;s a great, budget-friendly place to grab a burger or hot dog, coffee and newspaper. What you&#8217;ll also find is a pride of ownership that is not always apparent in a world less focused on good customer service.<\/p>\n<table align=\"left\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-0542617997214413\";\n\/* Cheap-Travel-Side-Ad *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"4615336226\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Case in point: I asked the owner about the &#8220;specials of the day.&#8221; He paused and felt terrible saying, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t make any special today. I&#8217;m sorry.&#8221; This wasn&#8217;t your basic vapid-response-in-between-texting from some dopey employee. He <em>really<\/em> meant it and as a result, I will be back. That might sound strange for a place that didn&#8217;t offer any &#8220;specials of the day,&#8221; on the day I was there, but I&#8217;m more into business sincerity and communication to go along with a good deal.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, the &#8220;News Room Restaurant&#8221; that you see on the sign in the photo above needs a little further exploration: the restaurant is just a few tables with chairs in the front and back. That&#8217;s OK, though, that&#8217;s the way many variety stores used to be, so I was glad to run across this roadside Americana remnant of unpretentiousness.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re traveling down Route 16 in south central Massachusetts en route to perhaps a day in Worcester, Mass., or antique shopping in Putnam, Conn., I suggest you stop here for a quick bite. It&#8217;s so nice to see a long-time business in a nice small town community like Douglas remain a presence even though the signs are worn. There&#8217;s still some &#8220;goodness,&#8221; after all, in the locally-owned and operated mom and pop business world!<\/p>\n<p><em>The Goodness Store and News Room Restaurant<br \/>\n328 SE Main St.<br \/>\nEast Douglas, MA<br \/>\nTel.\u00a0(508) 476-2202<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Goodness Store and News Room Restaurant in East Douglas, Mass., might have faded signs outside, but inside you&#8217;ll find a hometown business with no signs of fading. This old-time variety store that has been around forever won&#8217;t win any beauty contests, mind you, but it&#8217;s a great, budget-friendly place to grab a burger or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[269,275],"tags":[1807,1806,1809,1808],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visitingnewengland.com\/blog-cheap-travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}