Ivy Cafe and Gifts is leaving, but Arsenault’s Satellite TV Inc. is moving into a refurbished storefront.
NORWAY – More changes are happening on Main Street, as one shop closes and another opens.
After just over a year in business, Amanda Basselet and Pat Blackman have decided to close the doors of Butterflies and Ivy Cafe and Gifts at 331 Main St. They will be gone for Labor Day weekend and a few days the following week, then will close their doors for good Sept. 23.
“We didn’t fail, we just didn’t succeed in this location,” Blackman repeated to customers and a magazine ad representative Thursday morning.
Sitting down before a salad order came in, she said the foot traffic on Main Street was never enough to help keep the business going. “It’s nice that new shops are coming into town,” Blackman said, “but they’re not getting people to stop and walk around.”
Basselet, her daughter, said a lack of convenient parking and rising fuel prices also have made it difficult for the cafe to survive. For one, many people today refuse to park down the street and walk to a business, she said. And the increase in fuel costs has meant the mother-daughter team has had to increase prices.
Blackman intends to continue making candies, selling baked goods wholesale and catering business lunches and other events. Basselet is in the process of setting up an e-mail account to handle inquiries for food or chocolates.
Basselet, in the meantime, intends to take some time off before deciding on her next venture, which could involve anything from cosmetology school to flower arrangements and wedding planning.
A few doors down, at 273 Main St., Dennis and Debra Arsenault are hoping that Main Street traffic will boost their established business. The two moved their family business, Arsenault’s Satellite TV Inc., from their home on Cottage Street to Main Street on Aug. 15. If everything goes well, Debra Arsenault said they hope to be able to hire another person to help with installations so her husband can spend more time in the shop.
The family started their business in their home in 1993 after they bought a satellite dish and Dennis Arsenault discovered how much he enjoyed tinkering with it. When the sales, service and installation business increased to a full-time job, the Arsenaults remodeled their garage to house it and Debra Arsenault, a home-schooling mother, committed to being in the shop full time.
Son-in-law Tim Adams installs the satellite dishes for the family business, and the Arsenaults’ youngest daughter, 16-year-old Katie, helps in the shop, explaining the technical aspects that her mother may not understand as well.
As the business grew, it became clear that it was time to move it out of the family home. “Dennis always liked this building,” Arsenault said of the building on the corner of Main and Danforth streets. When he saw that it was being repainted last month, he inquired about moving into the empty storefront.
Arsenault was the first authorized retailer for the DISH Network in the area, and is also an authorized dealer of DirecTV satellite services. The business also offers Direcway satellite Internet service.
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