Business

‘The Artful Mix’ To Close Elm Street Store, Continue Selling Online

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The Artful Mix, a handcrafted gift shop in the heart downtown New Canaan, is to close its doors Jan. 15. The co-op model store at 134 Elm St. will continue to sell goods through its website, according to a sign posted in the window. Its owner, New Canaan resident Suzanne Nardi, said she looks forward to serving Artful Mix customers in new ways, not only through online sales but also through services such as staging and finding art for people’s homes.

Business

Local Businesses and COVID-19: The Artful Mix

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For today’s Q&A with a local business owner, we hear from New Canaan resident Suzanne Nardi of The Artful Mix. The Elm Street gift and fine art shop is offering online shopping and free delivery in addition to its regular store hours. 

Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: You took over at The Artful Mix—then Ally-Bally-Bee—in early 2019, and then one year later the COVID-19 pandemic hit. What has this been like for you? Suzanne Nardi: It has been very challenging trying to navigate the new normal with such a young brand.

Ally-Bally-Bee

Meet New Canaan’s Suzanne Nardi, the New Owner of Ally-Bally-Bee on Elm Street

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New Canaan’s Suzanne Nardi had been looking at a commercial space in Westport to launch a new art- and home-oriented business when an opportunity popped up here in town just a few months ago. A former online brand marketer who developed her own interior decorating business while raising two kids, Nardi heard from a friend that the owner of Ally-Bally-Bee on Elm Street had taken a new job and was looking for someone to take over the handcrafted gift shop. Nardi had been a patron of Ally-Bally-Bee and liked the co-op model shop at 134 Elm St., and saw an opportunity to assume an established business in a commercial space already fit out where she could make her own mark. 

“I felt like it was meant to be,” Nardi said Tuesday morning as deliverymen dropped off a package of the carefully selected merchandise that she’s laying out in a reimagined sales floor. “I am feeling very nervous and very excited,” she said. “I just want to open the door.