Home A Place For Living, Giving, and Of Course, Shopping

The store had just opened and already the hardest-working employee at Home was turning on the charm. Both Michele Norman, the owner of the newest business in Winchester, and her labradoodle Kokomo are new to the retail experience, but both agree, nothing beats an energetic tail-wag with a customer.

"He was my first hire, my trusty sidekick," said Norman.

If Fells Hardware is the oldest business in Winchester, Home is the new kid on the block. The Mt. Vernon Street gift shop opened on June 1 and the description of it as a "gift shop" isn't entirely fair. As the sign says, Home has "goods for living and giving." To understand what that means you have to know Norman.

Born in Winchester, Norman graduated from Arlington Catholic in 1981. She attended Wheaton College where she was a member of the last all-female graduating class as well as the 150th graduating class for the Norton school. With a degree in government she ended up, where else, in Washington DC where she worked for a law firm doing government relations work. She returned, along with husband Ron and two children, to Winchester in 1999.

Motherhood was her fulltime job but she felt strongly about getting involved in the community, especially in the area of education. She was a Town Meeting member and was active with "The Foundation For Educational Excellence" as well as "A Better Chance." In 2005 she met former governor Deval Patrick at a fundraiser in Winchester and began a relationship that lasted until 2009.

"His positions on education issues caught my attention, but it was his message of hope, as well as his call for engagement and responsibility for one another as a mission of government that inspired me to volunteer for his campaign," said Norman.

After Patrick was elected in Nov., 2006, Norman was asked to direct his Youth Inaugural which brought 1,200 high school students from across the state to the Shubert Theater in Boston on Inauguration Day. She joined the Patrick Administration in February of 2007 as a member of the Education Advisor's staff. She helped establish the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education and was the Policy Director for the Governor's Readiness Project, which created his 10-year plan for education in the state. She then became the Director of Strategic Planning and Collaboration for the Executive Office of Education.

In 2009 Norman, 54, left government and joined the children's multi-media company FableVision Studios where she helped clients like the United Way of Mass Bay and Merrimack Valley, the Gates Foundation, and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills tell their stories.

While the previous four paragraphs might impress you, they don't explain where the idea for opening a gift shop came from.

"I wish I knew. I love offering people a place where they can come and feel relaxed and/or happy. When I thought what I wanted to do now that the kids graduated from college, I sort of focused back on what I like. I decided to create a place in town would be the thing. Then the challenge is, what is the place? If I had any expertise in food I would have a coffee shop like Laura's, but I don't," said Norman in reference to Laura Fuller and theFULLerCup around the corner on Thompson Street. "So I wanted to create a gift shop that would give people an opportunity to come in, buy things for themselves, buy things for other people that would be a funky, positive space. So that's what led to the gift shop. Other than retail in high school, I have no experience what-so-ever with retail, with shop owning, with any of it."

When Norman uses the word "funky" she means it. Gifts aside, even the shelves have a story. Most of the display shelving is re-claimed seating from a baseball field in Maine, the Portland Sea Dogs she thinks. And many of the shelves had a door handle, the result of finding extra doors at her house that she turned into shelving. And the center display is contained on a faded gray table that in a former life was used to chop vegetables and was re-purposed by former Winchester resident John Howland.

The gifts too are funky, starting with a collection of pink flamingos. And if you had your heart set on a coffee mug with images of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren it's yours for $14. She's an equal-opportunity retailer, so there's also a mug with George and Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Richard Nixon. But no Trump?

"At the time I bought those Trump had only been in office for a few months so there probably weren't any mugs at that point. I'm a huge believer in participation and community life, and obviously I have a passion for politics."

Despite the lack of experience the decision to open a store didn't scare her.

"No, I'm a pretty careful person so I knew I had something to offer and I know that I can make people feel comfortable. So it wasn't scary, as much as it was an opportunity to really work hard. I've learned a ton. I've spent better than a year toying with the notion. I did a lot of research and a lot of observational shopping. Walking around, what is it about this place, why do I love this store? Why do I love to go into Fells Hardware? Those guys have an incredible knack for making anybody who walks in the door feel that they can get what they need and walk out feeling better than when they walked in. I've been a keen observer of what makes people comfortable and how a place can make a person's day better.

"When I finally said ok, that space is available on Mt. Vernon Street, the landlord said I could have my dog with me, which is hugely important to me, all of those pieces fell together. I didn't have an excuse not to do it any more."

It's two weeks before Christmas and she says "It's going great" even though she's not really sure how to judge success. Others in town, even her competitors like Gail Ockerbloom at Studio on the Common, have helped explain the uneven, unpredictable nature of retail.

"I keep saying, I'm trying to figure it out. Why was today a really busy day? I don't understand, it was raining. Their advice has been, stop trying to figure it out. It's very erratic. It's hard to predict what's going to bring people in on any given day. Give yourself a break. I'm trying to learn how you assess whether you're successful or not. I don't know yet."

She's appreciated the support she's received in town and isn't surprised that the competition, like Ockerbloom, is stepping up to help.

"She's also a community member. I think most of us have a similar feeling about wanting to make the town of Winchester a friendly, productive and helpful place. And how you do that can be any number of ways. It's a very strong sense of wanting to help people."

There's also a belief that people don't want to do all their shopping from a computer screen. If you want to shop at Home, you don't log on, you walk in.

"I'm never going ... I shouldn't say never. I do not intend to go into any online shopping realm. It's this bricks-n-mortar spot," said Norman, who added Home could be found on Facebook and Instagram. "I have not paid attention to search engine optimization. I haven't gone there yet. I think the notion of being able to walk into a place that's familiar and comfortable can supercede the ease and comfort of shopping from home."

Norman's idea of comfortable includes two rocking chairs in the back of the store.

"Most days there's somebody sitting in those chairs, just hanging out to chat. People I know, people I don't know. That's part of what makes it special I think."

If you still have questions, come in and grab a chair. Kokomo will be happy to see you.

Photos by Bob Holmes