RIVERTON – Elena Heath had merchandise to sell. Leslie DiMartino had a storefront. They teamed up in April 2023 and opened Village Gift Shoppe, located in an annex of the 134-year-old building that also houses the Riverton General Store.
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“I have always had a passion for thrifting and finding vintage items, and just basically recycling pieces and keeping them out of landfills,” Heath said. “And then (DiMartino) had a lot of antiques that she owned that she wanted to part with as well.”
DiMartino grew up in Winsted and owned the Riverton General Store for almost 20 years. She sold it in 2022, but kept the antiques, many of which were added to the inventory of the new endeavor.
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Heath hails from New York and taught elementary and college-level courses in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including the former Batcheller School in Winsted.
“In terms of starting a business, I really relied on (DiMartino) to kind of teach me how to run a business,” she said. “I’m the main person when it comes to people. I communicate with all of our vendors. I’m the one who kind of keeps track of what has sold to pay out our vendors at the end of each month.”
DiMartino said, “When I had (the general store), we had a few vendors in there, and Elena actually was one of them. But the new owners didn’t want to keep that going. We said, ‘Let’s try to do something.’ We were trying to think where.”
Heath said they looked at a location in Burlington before DiMartino’s son, Drew DiMartino, suggested repurposing the space in the general store’s annex that Leslie DiMartino had used as her office.
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“It was perfect,” DiMartino said. “So we decided to do that.”
The transformation from office to storefront took about two months, and most of the renovations were in a hallway to the left of the former office, she said. That hallway now has crown molding, baseboards, new paint and carpeting. An old cabinet, resurrected from a basement after 50 years, has been cleaned up and now holds gift items from some of the store’s 19 vendors.
Many of the vendors also work a few hours a month in the store, enabling them to earn a higher percentage of profit from the items they consign. Vendors who agree to work a shift a month earn 80 percent on any of the items they consign, versus 70 percent for other vendors, she said.
“We didn’t want to limit it to just us selling things,” Heath said. “We wanted to open it to others in the community who either made something or did something.”
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She said the vendors contribute a variety of gift items, mostly one of a kind. “We have woodworking, jewelry, vintage antiques, pottery. You know, a good mix,” she said.
DiMartino said she finds the atmosphere in the Village Gift Shoppe is more relaxed than in the Riverton General Store in the same building.
“It’s completely different,” she said, “a slower pace. I enjoy the time to really sit and talk with people and see how creative everyone is.”
“We’ve done really well,” Heath said. “We’re very pleased.”
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“We have sold a lot of stuff,” DiMartino agreed. “We just need to get people to come in and really just take their time and look around, because there’s so much stuff.”
Heath said, “I love the fact that I can take my passion and kind of share it with people. A lot of people come in and they say, ‘Oh, this is gorgeous.’”
She said people often say to her, “Riverton needed something like this, it’s such a good idea, such a cute store.”
The Village Gift Shoppe is at 2 Main St., Riverton, and is open Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m.- to 4 p.m. Find the store on Facebook or Instagram, @vgsriverton.
860-261-4405
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