West Hartford Business Buzz for Dec. 1: Openings, Closings and Other News

There are several big weeks during the year for business (I’m looking at you, Arbor Day Clearance Blowouts!), but the biggest week in terms of retail sales is the extended weekend stretch following Thanksgiving, which includes Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday

And this year, with Black Friday bleeding into Thanksgiving Day, didn’t disappoint in West Hartford.

Indeed, Westfarms reportedly had its parking lot at 95 percent capacity at 8 p.m. Thursday, as the mall opened for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. That tapered to just 75 percent capacity at 3 a.m., according to Westfarms spokesperson Amanda Sirica.

“We did a whole day of business from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. [Friday],” according to Westfarms Marketing and Sponsorship Director Sarah Williams. “We’re into the season. We’re off to a great start.”

Best Buy and Toys “R” Us reported having similar traffic on Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday.

But the big retailers weren’t the only focus this past week.

Small Business Saturday, now in its third year, drew shoppers smaller, locally owned stores.

Among those local retailers is Lila Mae, which is an eclectic brick-and-mortar incarnation of an online store opened by Farmington resident Heather French. The store has a little bit of everything, from hand-crafted jewelry to candles to all-natural chocolate and syrup to furniture to children’s paint made from vegetable coloring to tumblers made from recycled glass.

Still more small businesses featured in West Hartford Patch this week include Healthy Healing Wellness, which was started by Jennifer Steiner after she ingested something that caused her body to have symptoms that mirrored multiple sclerosis.

Another locally owned store featured this week is ShopRite of West Hartford. The ShopRite of West Hartford and Canton are owned by the Joseph Family Markets, which has the mission “to positively impact its associates, customers and community while upholding its core values of integrity, self realization, family, service, enjoyment and sustainability.”

Another locally owned business got a bit of a scare on Tuesday when A.C. Petersen Farms had a small fire behind the fryolator, resulting in its closure until Black Friday. It was the second fire at A.C. Petersen Farms since July, though fire officials said they believe they are unrelated.

West Hartford residents love to be "in the know" about happenings in town, especially the openings — and closings — of local businesses. We hear things all the time, and some of them turn into big stories. But sometimes we don't have enough news to write an entire story, even though the information is definitely newsworthy.