New owner revives downtown Columbia gift shop that recently closed
Michelle Cormier left behind the little gift-and-home store she ran for 14 years on the main street of a one-stoplight Massachusetts town. Since moving to Columbia four years ago, she’s dreamed of starting over with a new store in her new home.
Now, on a much busier Main Street, Cormier is living her dream by reviving a mainstay of Columbia’s downtown.
Cormier is reopening the Uptown on Main gift shop after the 12-year-old store’s former owner retired and sold the business earlier this summer.
“I count my blessings because I’m standing in the middle of what I want to do with my life, and not everybody gets a chance to do that,” said Cormier, as she worked this week to ready the store to reopen by mid-September.
Her vision is to maintain the longtime character of Uptown. She will keep many of the South Carolina-centric housewares and knick-knacks, customizable gifts and keepsakes, a small array of foodstuff and baby items and reliable stash of Southern tailgating essentials — while expanding some of the store’s offerings and incorporating her own tastes.
“I’m eager to get the doors open so I can find out what the people are looking for,” Cormier said. “I’m really just trying to enhance what was already here.”
Cormier acknowledged the unique challenge of opening a business in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But, she said, she’s been encouraged by the overall sense of support for local businesses in recent months.
“I think people are eager to get out and support local business, especially through this,” she said. “I think it made people really open their eyes a lot to (see) we’re all struggling, so let’s support each other.”
Due to the pandemic, it’s been a bit more difficult to quickly stock products for the store, Cormier said. But she hopes to have enough items on shelves to launch a “soft-open” within the next two weeks.
Uptown on Main is located at 1204 Main St. near the S.C. State House in Columbia.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
