NORTHAMPTON—Cedar Chest, a longtime eclectic gift store, is celebrating its 75th anniversary in downtown Northampton as its new sister store, Stay Golden, announces a rebrand and grand opening event in its permanent location in Thornes Marketplace.

The anniversary for Cedar Chest, which carries everything from home décor to stationery and holiday items, will be marked with special promotions in the store from Thursday, Sept. 22 to Sunday, Sept. 25. Customers who spend over $75 will receive a gift bag full of free items from different sections of the store.

The grand opening for Stay Golden will be held Oct. 14 and is free and open to the public.

The launch will be held in conjunction with Arts Night Out from 5 to 8 p.m., and those who visit the shop can dance to music played by a DJ, have their photo taken in a photo booth, and sample charcuterie by Fed by Foley and cocktails from Tellus & The Satellite Bar. There will also be giveaway items and a raffle.

Both businesses are owned by Rich Madowitz, also one of the co-owners of Thornes. About 30 associates work at the shops, with a half dozen dedicated to Stay Golden.

“We are excited our customers can find us in two spaces in Thornes,” said Lauren Gunther, merchandise manager for Cedar Chest since 2010 and now Stay Golden as well. “We are excited to see Stay Golden grow.”

Cedar Chest was originally on Main Street in Northampton and dates back at least to 1947, the year the oldest-known photo of the shop was taken. After Brinkley and Gordon Thorne, and their wives Mazie Cox and Annie Woodhull, purchased the McCallum Building in 1977 and launched Thornes Marketplace, Cox purchased Cedar Chest and moved the business into Thornes, where it remains an anchor store.

Madowitz purchased the business in 2010.

Gunther said, initially, the shop sold linens, bedding, and home décor. “Now it’s a gift shop of epic proportions,” she said, noting the business tagline is “Home. Body. Heart.”

The store sprawls over two floors with items ranging from loungewear and bath and body items on the ground floor to kitchen products, home décor, holiday and seasonal items, books and stationery on the second floor. “We try to separate what we’re doing from what other people are doing in town and in the building,” Gunther said. “We have unique products not represented elsewhere.”

As the buyer for the business, Gunther is pleased that she can visit trade shows once again and move away from buying online, as she was forced to do during the pandemic. Before she came to Thornes, Gunther’s background was in fashion, so it has been exciting for her to watch Cedar Chest’s sister store evolve with a focus on women’s clothing.

First launched last summer as an eight-week-long pop-up shop on Level One by the parking garage and sky walk, the business was called Cedar Chest Fashion. The concept was successful, so it expanded and rebranded as Stay Golden with the help of Carrie Lenard of Lenard Design.

“Golden” in the name is a reference to each day’s Golden Hour—after sunrise or before sunset, when the intensity of the sun’s light is reduced, and the sky appears redder and softer. “Golden Hour is about the feeling you get when the sun and the air and the mood feel right, all at the same time,” Gunther said. “We want to be with people in those moments where they feel—and look—their best and can hold onto that feeling. We want women to Stay Golden.”

Some of the fixtures and décor in the shop—from hangers to mannequins—came from Faces, which closed in 2019 after nearly 45 years in business. “We now occupy the whole shop, and we cater to professional women who want to update their closet every season with a couple great new products,” she said. 

Stay Golden carries primarily clothing for women—a mix of everyday casual and some business wear, such as silk blouses or items with rich patterns and textures. “Women will find things like fuzzy jackets and sweaters in fall and glitz around the holidays,” Gunther said, noting the shop also carries jewelry and small accessories, like sunglasses. 

“The store’s mission is to ride the edge of trends with a focus on the classic styling and to make women look and feel beautiful,” she added.

Soon, Stay Golden will launch an informational website at staygoldennorthampton.com.

For more information on Cedar Chest, visit explorecedarchest.com.

The post Cedar Chest Celebrates 75th Anniversary in Downtown Northampton as its Sister Store, Stay Golden, Announces its Grand Opening in Thornes Marketplace on Oct. 14 appeared first on Beetle Press.

Rebecca Maillet, the founder, lead farmer, and creative director for Many Graces, holds up the great coverage the press release generated in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Note: I have been the PR partner for Thornes Marketplace for about five years now, working with Jody Doele, co-owner and marketing director of the historic and eclectic shopping center in Northampton, Massachusetts. My work is to help brainstorm topics for press releases, then develop and distribute them. When the release has gone out to the media, I also repurpose the story as a blog, which Thornes posts on its website. This release/blog about Many Graces, a new flower shop in Thornes, got a great deal of attention—both with TV crews and in print media.

We are pleased to announce that Many Graces, a unique flower shop with products grown on Hadley farmland, is holding a soft opening of its new shop on the first floor of Thornes Marketplace from Feb. 1 to 14.

A grand opening will be held March 1. Come on in and meet the Many Graces team and check out the beautiful local wares—from bouquets to dahlia tubers!

Rebecca Maillet, the founder, lead farmer, and creative director for Many Graces, is excited to have a local storefront in Thornes for the business she founded in 2018, which has since been operating as an online center for flower and bouquet distribution. 

“We can grow so many things that you could never find in traditional retail stores,” she says. “I’m looking forward to letting people see the real wealth of beauty that is possible to generate from our landscape.”

Kel Komenda, managing director for Many Graces, adds, “We are looking forward to connecting to the community in a way that we have yet to have the opportunity to do. We’re looking forward to having a daily face in the community and being able to talk to people about what is involved in our work and showcase how abundant our products are.”

Many Graces will offer year-round flower subscriptions, botanical décor, cut flowers, houseplants, dried flowers, centerpieces, dahlia tubers that can be planted by local gardeners, and dried-flower terrariums. Services also include wedding and event design consultation. 

Over 250 varieties of specialty cut flowers are grown by Many Graces; Rebecca has an eye for that which is not typical. She grows close to 10,000 dahlias in various rare varieties, including orange globe, apple blossom, and verrone’s obsidian dahlias. 

Also of interest in the shop, August through November, are eucalyptus and some very unique varieties of Japanese lisianthus. “They are stunning flowers and have a 10- to 14-day base life,” Rebecca says of the latter plant. 

Among the shop’s early harvests will be tulips. “We planted 12,000 specialty tulips in the fall, so people should be getting excited about that,” Kel says. “I didn’t really think a tulip was an interesting flower, but the kind that Rebecca grows are mind-blowing and can get to three feet tall.” 

Many Graces leases eight and a half acres of land in Hadley, growing on about half that currently. “We farm according to organic certification practices, so we’re constantly rotating where we’re planting on different fields to restore and regenerate the fields before we plant them again,” Rebecca says. 

As a child, Rebecca’s mother took her on foraging expeditions in the woods to find things of beauty, such as unique pinecones or branches they would then craft into interesting centerpieces. She founded Many Graces in 2018 after serving as the primary caregiver for her beloved friend Ruth through a cancer diagnosis. “Flowers really were a balm to the difficulties of that time,” Rebecca says. “They were the little beings that gave us beauty and hope and joy in what was an inherently difficult time. After Ruth passed away, I found myself gravitating toward flowers to stay close to her.”

In 2016, Rebecca began growing flowers at Next Barn Over Farm, developing a flower CSA as an add-on to its already-successful vegetable CSA program. Two years later, she created Many Graces. Through the website, people can buy bouquets or buckets of flowers to design their own arrangements. Dahlia tubers are also available, as are flower subscriptions, through which subscribers receive a bouquet a month from May through December; the December offering is an evergreen display.

All of those products can now be picked up in the shop at Thornes.

Rebecca has a master’s degree in English literature from Mills College in Oakland, California. She was working toward a doctoral degree in English literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, when she felt a tug toward the flower business and discontinued her studies.

Kel holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and philosophy from a small liberal arts school in the Midwest.

Rebecca expects to have a team of about 10-12 staff this season, with crews for farming, retail, and weddings and other events. Several positions are open; those interested should visit the Employment page on the Many Graces website to view current job openings and contact information.

“We strive to communicate what it means to be a small business with young staff,” Kel says. “We want to continue to support this little local economy we’ve created out of nothing.”

Rebecca says, “Our success so far is reflective of all the hearts—mine and Kel’s and our staff members’—and also, perhaps most importantly, the enthusiasm and support of the community. We’re really excited to be in Thornes because we’ll get more facetime with the community that has already lifted us up so much in the last four years. We’re excited to be more present.”

We are excited as well—to have Many Graces in Thornes Marketplace! Welcome! 

The post Unique Flower Shop with Products Grown on Hadley Farm Opening in Thornes Marketplace appeared first on Beetle Press.