Business

Holiday Shopping 2023: That Personal Touch

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For this installment of our local holiday shopping series, we visited Lynn van der Els, owner of That Personal Touch on Main Street. Here’s a transcript of our conversation. 

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New Canaanite: Please give us some background on That Personal Touch and tell us what you offer here. Lynn van der Els: My mom and I started the business 40 years ago, we just celebrated our 40th anniversary on November 4th. She passed away 11 years later, and then I met my husband Mitch, and he came into the business with me, and he became the engraver. I used to be the engraver, and my mom would do all the book work, so we reversed roles.

Alanna Fleisch

Holiday Shopping 2023: Athletic Shoe Factory

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For today’s installment of our local holiday shopping series, we met up with Athletic Shoe Factory owner Alanna Fleisch at the Forest Street store. 

Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: Please give us some background on the Athletic Shoe Factory and an overview of what you carry here. 

Alanna Fleisch: We’re a family-owned and -operated business since the late-‘70s. We’re a sporting goods store, so we specialize in just about anything and everything we can fit in these walls. Obviously running shoes are our bread and butter. But we have a large array of socks, apparel and equipment for all the sports—soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball.

Business

Holiday Shopping 2023: Stewart’s Wine & Spirits

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For today’s installment of our local holiday shopping series, we met up with Larry Klem, store manager at Stewart’s Wine & Spirits. Here’s our conversation. ***

New Canaanite: Tell me about Stewart’s Wine & Spirits and its customers. Larry Klem: We have a really, I would say, vibrant customer base. Pretty wine savvy customers.

Business
Dooney & Bourke is coming to South and Elm. Credit: Michael Dinan

Luxury Leather Goods Store ‘Dooney & Bourke’ Coming to Elm Street

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A luxury leather goods store is coming to downtown New Canaan. Norwalk-based Dooney & Bourke, maker of bags and accessories, is moving into the vacant space at the corner of South Avenue and Elm Street, according to signs going up on the building. 

The company has “fostered a relationship with premier European craftsmen, refining techniques to create high performance materials with enduring quality,” according to its website. “The entrepreneurial spirit of Dooney & Bourke remains. We are privately run, independent, and dedicated to the exceptional artisanal craftsmanship that has separated our brand from its competitors.”

The space at 66 Elm St. has been vacant since Heather Gaudio Fine Art moved to Greenwich in September. 

Dooney & Bourke was founded in Norwalk in 1975 by Peter Dooney as a purveyor of belts, suspenders and small leather goods, according to its website.

Ann Cheney

Holiday Shopping 2023: Walter Stewart’s Market

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For this installment of our local holiday shopping series, we talked to Ann Cheney, store manager at Walter Stewart’s Market. 

Here’s a transcription of our conversation. ***

New Canaanite: Talk to me a little bit about Walter Stewart’s and what the store likes to do during the holidays. 

Ann Cheney: Walter Stewart’s is the New Canaan community market and we like to have everything for our many customers, whether it’s an easy dinner preparation or an extravagant pull-out-all-the-stops holiday meal, meal ingredient or catering. We do that all throughout December.  

What kind of things are people coming in to look for, specifically, during the holidays? Our customers are looking for special gifts, treats for the grandchildren, treats for themselves. We offer a wide variety of candy and floral items, in terms of gifts.