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WILTON, CT – Four local women who love antiques, heirlooms and other vintage items will find out if their passion can make cash registers ring when they open a new store in Ridgefield on Friday.
Grand openings will be held at all four stores on October 14-16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 346 Ethan Allen Highway.
Live music, food trucks, local artists, a pop-up clothing store and a raffle will be part of the inaugural weekend celebration.
Dana Bucci of Ridgefield is opening a brick-and-mortar store from Bluebird Estates Consignment and Estate Sales in the former Walpole Outdoors space. Located next to Vixen Hill Village is a converted holiday home that houses three antique furniture stores.
Always in Blooms, owned by Ridgefielder Amy Goodwin, will work alongside Lana Waldron-Taubin’s Seasonal Celebrations by Lana and Kelly Magner’s Tiques & More. The latter two entrepreneurs are from Wilton.
“We all love finding unique, vintage pieces that we can repurpose in our homes,” said Kelly Magner, a teacher at Miller-Driscoll School in Wilton. “And we kind of started talking, we all liked the same type of business. And a year later, the four of us opened a business.”
Magner met his new partners during his regular “tiquing” tours of the area, which included Wilton’s semi-annual Minks to Sinks event and trips to tchotchke Mecca The Elephant’s Trunk in New Milford.
The women hope to turn their new stores into “destination” shopping by opening just a few days each month and offering food trucks, pop-up vendors and live music as part of the experience.
Magner, who has been selling curiosities he’s acquired online, has high hopes for the new venture, in part because he’s read about the TikTok generation’s obsession with antiquing.
“They actually call themselves ‘Grandmillennials’ because they’re looking for grandma-inspired vintage pieces to decorate their homes,” Magner said.
In the glory days of New England antiquing, the Ethan Allen Highway from Ridgefield to New Milford and beyond was a veritable Marrakesh of antique markets and dealers. Most have sadly closed, but more than a few are holding back, and Magner hopes his new venture can play a role in rekindling interest in antiquing along Danbury Road.
“One of the things we plan to do is almost create a roadmap where customers can come in, scan a QR code and actually find these places,” Magner said.
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