Village Squire, 1976-07, Page 10Opportunity knocked
and Lil MacLachlan
and Jean Storrar answered
Air
Lil MacLachlan and sister Jean Storrar see
the need for more little stores in Blyth.
The Kitchen Cupboard has a wide variety of giftware and
their way into what they hope will be a second career.
All- a vee ! ACF SQUIRE/JULY 1976
When opportunity knocked, Lil MacLach-
lan and Jean Storrar answered.
Like many people in Western Ontario, Lil
and Jean had made periodic trips to Blyth to
shop at the two woolen and leather factory
outlets. Like others before them, they saw in
the village the ideal location for smaller
specialty shops which would make use of the
'already heavy traffic flow and add variety to
the shopping in the village. Unlike others, Lil
and jean decided to do something about it.
Their original idea was that the village
could use a little tea shop for visitors to have a
cup of tea or coffee and a light meal. They
even explored the possibility by working for a
while in a shop in Elora to see what it would
be like. They soon realized, however, how
much work was involved and how hard it was
to keep things fresh for the customers. They
began looking instead towards a small
gift -shop.
The problem, they quickly learned, was the
lack of possible sites in Blyth. At first they
tried to find an old house in the village as the
location for their shop but were unsuccessful.
There is a chronic shortage of commercial
space in the village but luckily for them a
shop did come open this past winter and they
quickly snapped it up.
They had wanted to be shop -owners, but
first they became carpenters. The shop was to
be re -arranged and redecorated and workmen
were hard to come by. So the two ladies
decided to do the work themselves. They
worked saws and they laid flooring and they
did just about everything as they remodelled
the shop to suit their needs. They became too
gourmet cookware as its owners feel proficient, Lil recalls, that they were almost
sorry when the work was finished and it
became time to open ups