Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Vermont Country Store Vermont Country Store The Vermont Country Store, Inc. (est. in 1946) is an American catalog, retail, and e-commerce business based in Vermont. The company is operated by the Orton family. Although The Vermont Country store first opened in 1946 in Weston, Vermont, by Vrest and Mildred Ellen Orton. Its origins lie in the Orton family’s long Vermont history. In 1897, Gardner Lyman Orton, the 8th generation of Ortons in the United States, opened a general store with his father-in-law Melvin Teachout in Calais, Vermont. Gardner's wife Leila gave birth to their eldest son Vrest that same year. The Teachout-Orton general