Downtown Madison's Summer Is Bright

With the increase in population that Madison sees every summer there is an increase in foot traffic downtown and this is resulting in positive vibes from store owners.  Even without an official store sign to announce the arrive of Khaki & Black back to main street Owner Joel Stander says customers old and new are flocking to his new storefront.

“It’s all like ‘Welcome Home,’" said a smiling Stander, reflecting on his move from Station Square back to Boston Post Road after three years.  “It’s so Mayberry.  I love that it’s so Mayberry because everybody knows everybody.”  The number of customers coming in to browse at Khaki & Black has resulted in increased sales, he said.

“Business is great,” said Stander.  “There are people walking in that never knew we were here, there are people walking in here that said they never got over to the other place.”  The two areas where Stander has seen the biggest jump is men’s wear and his specialty sale of Simon Pierce hand blown glass and handmade pottery designs.

Down the street at Jolie Boutique, the store owners have decided to bump out the back wall and almost double the size of the store. While the owners admit do some level of trepidation about the increase of floor space, rent and merchandise, they say they are confident it will pay off.

“We had to make sure we could do it,” said Ally Hill, one of the owners of Jolie Boutique.  “We certainly didn’t want this to break us!”

The expansion was finished about three weeks ago and the store owners say they are getting good foodback. ”It was a very easy transition,” said Hill. “People tend to now spend more time browsing. It’s not like browsing with all the racks right around you. They browse, they spend time. The response to it has been amazing.”

Madison Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Eileen Banisch attributes the increase in storefront traffic and sales “in part to the Madison Beach Hotel.”

“I think people who are staying there at the hotel are coming downtown to shop because they're in vacation mode,” said Banisch.  “I think that is the difference this year because I don’t think the economy is any better at all, but I think it’s the fact that we have that magnet in town.”

Along with the businesses throughout town that has been here for years, Madison shoppers also have some new venues to check out.  Around the corner on Wall Street Lily Juliet, Beads of Paradise and The Frame Shop have opened their doors. 

"Wall Street is starting to boom,” said Banisch.  This is echoed by the shop keepers at both Lily Juliet and Beads of Paradise, both newcomers to town.  “It’s interesting,” said Lily Juliet co-owner Joel Levin.  “It’s introducing totally new ideas to a community.  We’re being received very well.”

He explains that his store is as much about the artists as it is about the  merchandise he has tastefully displayed throughout the shop.  “Whatever it is that we are doing here we hope is as much about the people and their stories as it is about particular pieces of merchandise”

“It’s very contemporary, it’s eclectic.  It’s a lifestyle and a way of living as opposed to everything being very similar to something else in the store or something  else in town,” said Levin.

“It’s reflective of how we like to live; the environments that we visit, the stories that we hear people tell. We’re as interested about the stories of the designers as the designs themselves.”

Upon entering Beads of Paradise, a couple of storefronts north of Lily Juliet, shoppers are presented with beautifully displayed, colorful trays full of myriad shapes, colors and textures of beads.  

Their decision to close the North Branford store and move to downtown Madison is resulting in many more visitors.  “There’s a lot of foot traffic, which is really nice compared to where we were,” said Manager Jade Smith.  “We’re definitely very excited about the upcoming summer and some of the events the Chamber of Commerce is holding to get some people in here.  So far, so good!”

Store owners old and new seem to echo this sentiment: There is a positive vibe downtown and all hope it continues.

“We just love Madison,” said Lily Juliet’s Levin. “(We believed) it was a wonderful community that respected its architecture and it had a special bookstore and a special movie theater.  We thought it would be a population that would greet us enthusiastically.”