Business

Elm Street’s Ally-Bally-Bee in ‘Hibernation’ While Owner Seeks Partner To Continue Gift Shop

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Handcrafted gift shop Ally-Bally-Bee on Elm Street is “hibernating” for January and February, its owner said, while she seeks a new partner interested in taking over the business. Morag Grassie recently accepted a position at Yale University in her previous field of biomedical research and, as a consequence, cannot devote enough time to the co-op model shop at 134 Elm St. in New Canaan. Asked what she would tell a prospective partner about Ally-Bally-Bee, Grassie said it’s “an absolutely great way to get involved with lots of small local businesses, to help them promote their ideas and help them polish what they have.”

“It’s a way to help their art businesses flourish, because that is what I see happening with all of the artists who have been with us so long,” Grassie said. “You’re a part of the community, and it’s almost a combination of business and philanthropy, because as a business you absolutely have to make money, but you’re also helping people develop their passions, as well.”

Ideally, Grassie said, the new partner would be a local New Canaan artist who can “be the face of the store” for patrons to connect and identify with, she said.

Business

PHOTOS: Ally-Bally-Bee Opens on Elm Street

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Ally-Bally-Bee, the handcrafted gift shop founded by Morag Grassie, opened Thursday at 134 Elm St. in New Canaan. The co-op model shop features artisanal works from area residents—see gallery above. Grassie, a Glasgow, Scotland native who created Ally-Bally-Bee after taking a degree in molecular biology and launching a career as a scientific researcher, said she was feeling “a little bit tired but very excited” hours after the shop opened its doors. “We were still stocking here at 2:30 this morning,” she said as New Canaanites popped in to the warm, welcoming space.

Business

‘Ally-Bally-Bee’: Handcrafted Gift Store To Open This Month on Elm Street

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Prior to moving to the United States from her native Scotland 11 years ago, Morag Grassie had been deeply immersed in her career as a scientific researcher. After earning a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Glasgow University and doctorate degree at the Institute of Virology, a government agency, she worked as a research fellow and professor, then spent eight years in psychiatric drug development and finally in human genome DNA research, leading one company’s large pharmacological department. The family moved here (they’re now in Redding, kids aged 21, 19 and 15) for the sake of her husband’s career and “I left my other life,” Grassie recalled on a recent afternoon. Unable after just a few years out of her field to re-penetrate the job market in the United States at a hard-won, accustomed level, Grassie decided “I’m doing something different,” she recalled, “and I started to look for a property to do this business idea that had been incubating for quite a while.”

Born of her own penchant for working with textiles—Grassie had started making items such as purses, and partly out of boredom been working with an interior designer, reupholstering furniture—she thought about “how great to have your perfect craft show open in bricks and mortar, year-round.”

Welcome to Ally-Bally-Bee, a handcrafted gift store that’s operated in Ridgefield for five years and is scheduled to open March 30 on Elm Street in New Canaan. A co-op model shop that features an approximately even split between the works of dozens of local artists and handcrafted items selected by Grassie at shows throughout the United States (and beyond)—Ally-Bally-Bee is named for a Scottish nursery rhyme that includes a line about “sittin’ on yer mammy’s knee.” For Grassie, who had felt at the point she was ready to name the new business that she’d been losing her connection to Scotland, the name also made great sense because “so many artists learn from their mothers.”

Ally-Bally-Bee is a nice fit for New Canaan (she’s keeping the Ridgefield location, too), she said, because “it’s such a community-based town that wants to support local businesses and artists.”

“We are a destination store and I always think of New Canaan as a great destination location for shopping.