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Date: 1/6/2021
WESTFIELD – After opening on Dec. 15, 2020, Hilltown Chic, a brand-new business in Westfield, offers handcrafted and specialty home décor goods to spruce up your home.
Cassie Cyr, Hilltown Chic’s owner, said after years of working for other people she wanted to do it for herself, including creating her products and running her own store.
“I was always working for somebody else and I figured if I was going to work retail 80 hours a week, I figured I’d do it for myself. I do all the frames and wood in my workshop at home, I make all the frames, everything and then I paint them. I do the etched glass and I made a bunch of the bags,” she said.
While many of her products are handmade, Cyr reached out to several vendors to help fill her shelves ahead of the holidays.
“I did order some things in time for Christmas to have a full stock because I wasn’t sure what to expect. There’s some funny brands out there that I did some research on because any time they popped up on Facebook they looked like a scam, but they were legit companies,” she said.
Cyr said the biggest challenge in opening during the pandemic was finding a space to open.
“I think finding the place was the hardest part of it, I knew basically what I wanted to do. Being during COVID I think it was a little bit easier because landlords were a lot more lenient and wanting to rent spaces to start businesses,” she said.
After initially looking into opening a store in Agawam, Cyr said she decided on Westfield because of the community.
“I love this area, I love the community and they always have events going on, not now but someday it’ll come back. It’s just a welcoming community and it’s always been really nice here. I also noticed that there are some new businesses starting to pop up here,” she said.
She added that she wanted to create a fun environment and to give people something to laugh about during a difficult time for everyone.
“It’s important to me that I make sure people have fun and some quirky things. Put some sass in your life, I guess. I’m just trying to make a fun environment, especially with the way things are right now,” she said.
Hilltown Chic, located at 24 School St., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.