Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs will close its store at 973 Farmington Ave. in West Hartford Center at the end of December.
Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs will close its Farmington Avenue store in West Hartford at the end of December. Photo credit: Ronni Newton
By Ronni Newton
The Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs store on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford has a sign on the door indicating that it will be closed for a few days the week of Thanksgiving, but by the end of the year the store plans to close its doors for good.
“We just didn’t have the business anymore,” said Irena Bojko, one of the several managers in the West Hartford store.
Bojko said that parking in the Center was a contibutor. “A majority of our customers are older,” Bojko said, and many have said they have trouble figuring out the Center’s kiosk-based parking system.
Plans are to remain open through the holidays with a final closing at the end of December. Merchandise will be discounted prior to the closing, Bojko said, with at least a 25 percent discount on fall/early winter items, but some of the newer stock will be transfered to other stores after the closing.
Lyn Evans has seven other stores, including two others in Connecticut (New Canaan and Ridgefield), and all will remain open.
“This was a great company to work for. It was a cute store,” Bojko said. She will not be able to remain with the company because the other stores are too far away.
“I think we had a pretty unique store, different and relatively reasonably-priced,” she said.
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It is unfortunate that parking is again being blamed for the demise of a store in the Center. I have to say that kiosks are being used in many towns now, so that is not really a viable “excuse.” Yes, ours are different, but they really aren’t all that complicated! I found that, over time, Lyn Evans selection had gotten too fragmented. It would be nice if Bodytalk from Avon or the clothing store from Glastonbury (can’t remember its name) spread their wings into WH. Clearly a loss, but possibly an opportunity.
I don’t agree with the earlier poster – It’s not that the kiosks are “complicated” – It’s that they are annoying to use, especially for older people who can’t see the message window’s dim readout in the glare of the sun or other weather. I am only 57 and very computer savvy, work on computers at work have a smart phone, have been online since the beginning and yet I struggle with those stupid machines. Plus it’s just gotten ridiculous to park in the Center anymore which prohibits older people from coming. I was thrilled to death when my Salon (Salon Medusa) moved to Bishop’s Corner – The parking is no problem there!
In running a business, one must always be willing to adapt and adjust. If parking were the only issue, could they tell customers to park in the lot behind and validate? Offer a coupon. incentive. Excuses are very often a smokescreen.
I agree with the individual who mentioned that validating would help, like some stores do for the garages. Also, I’m really sorry, but I’m 64 and computer savvy, and I have NO problem reading the instructions and figuring out how to use the kiosks AND the mobile app. Change is difficult, but these kiosks – in NYC, Hartford, Northampton, etc. – they are NOT going away.
What stores offer validation for parking?
There will be no reprieve from the parking situation. The machines will be coming to the back parking lots eventually. I’ve been all over the country where you use the machines by putting in your credit card and add or subtract time. Our machines suck, They inhibit business. Customer comes into store and then realizes they need to run out and feed machines. Well, there goes another customer, never to return. Not that day at least.
Unfortunately the lot behind Lyn Evans also requires dealing with the parking kiosks there is no attendant in the lot or way for the stores to validate parking. Upon heading to Grant’s for a recent lunch we could not get the kiosk to operate properly using coins. The hostess from Grant’s tried to help and said “these things never work right”
In reading some of the post, we thought we should set the record straight for our fabulous customers, and WeHa subscribers, Lyn Evans is sadly closing it’s doors in West Hartford store for several reasons, but the underlying premise, is that our store traffic and sales in West Hartford have been declining since the new parking system has been in place. We have a direct correlation between the two data points, and anecdotally, we hear it from our customers every day. Is it the only reason, probably not? Many people are just not supporting the stores in West Hartford. It’s pretty obvious when stores keep turning over in town, that the business model is not working; rents are too high to support the reduced traffic in West Hartford center. There are stores in town that do zero business on some days, even on a Saturday.
It was a really difficult decision to make (many sleepless nights), and it’s especially painful for our devoted, loyal staff and customers. We composed a letter that we sent out to many of our loyal customers and we will forward the letter to WeHa.
Lyn Evans has been in business for thirty seven years, so I think we have some credibility in retail. We have won numerous awards, including; MA Retailer of the Year, Best of Boston, etc…. Lyn has served on the Board of Directors for a major Bank in Boston, served as a Trustee for her college, and won numerous awards in many of the communities we serve. Lyn has made it a company mission to support many of the smaller local charities and non-profits in our communities.
Ending on a brighter note, many of our customers will be able to stay in touch, shop online and speak with some of our talented stylist to help with any fashion tips and suggestions. Following in Lyn’s footsteps, our daughter, Jenn, is heading up our social media and internet division. Please visit http://www.lynevans.com or join our social media site.
In the meantime, everyone is invited to visit our store,give hugs to our staff and enjoy great values for the Holidays. We will be adding new fashions and styles every week until the season is over.
Happy Holidays
The Lyn Evans Team
My 88 year old father saw this coming. When he saw these kiosks being installed he said older people would be put off by them, especially if they are quirky and not easy to use, which they often are. He is an old radio nut who has also pointed out that even though in the ’80s we thought dials and knobs were “old fashioned” and on the way out on electronics and in cars, they still persist. Same goes for analog clocks and watches. Why? Because people like them. Sometimes technical types don’t take into account the emotional factor in these things. Also, knobs and dials rarely fail, but even on my husband’s brand new Lincoln MKT the volume virtual up/down lever sometimes fails. It’s maddening for people who remember when things actually did what they were supposed to do.
I joined the Lyn Evans stylist team in June 2013 after 30 years as a marketing professional in the corporate world. This has been my semi-retirement “dream job” and it breaks my heart that this lovely little boutique that has something for every lifestyle, fair prices, and the nicest, most genuinely caring team of stylists is closing its doors. I think I can speak for myself and my co-stylists to say that we will truly miss our customers (who often come in simply to say hi and chat – we have that kind of relationship with them). I am a 30-year resident of WH and have lived through the many changes of the WH Center. The new parking system went into operation just when I joined Lyn Evans. Shoppers were howling about it, coming in frustrated and angry, and threatening to stop coming to the Center. I attended a meeting of the West Hartford Merchants group that was specifically scheduled to discuss the parking issue – that’s how much of a concern it was for the merchants. In that meeting I said, and will say again now, that yes, this is the way parking is changing everywhere. Kiosks are becoming commonplace in big cities and small. But what went wrong here is that the WH parking powers-that-be did NOTHING to make this a well-understood and smooth transition. And they did not think about who shops in WH and set up the kiosks so that they were easy to learn and use. We have two local newspapers, a city magazine, and a WE-HA website. Leading up to this change, where were the informational articles, pictures, notifications that this change was coming? Where was the “help hotline” number for those times when the kiosks don’t work (and sometimes they don’t)? Where were the follow-up info articles repeating instructions and providing help numbers? Where was the signage at the kiosks that was eye-level, legible, and clear? Where was the alert to the merchants that this change was coming? In short, where was the COMMUNICATION EFFORT from the parking authority and the Town to the WH residents, visitors, and merchants? The lack of consideration for how this change affects people is being interpreted as rude, greedy, inconsiderate and exploitative by Center visitors – and understandably so. We hear it every day from our customers. It leaves merchants in the awkward position of having to apologize for the ineptness of the Town in its handling of this transition. It leaves us in the position of having to sell harder just to get customers to COME IN to the Center, never mind to buy. Stan is right – the parking issue may not be the only reason for our store’s closing – but it went a very long way to contribute to it. So sad, because with a little thought and consideration and smarts, this could have been avoided. I will miss my co-workers, my customers, and the Center very much.
I’ve used those kiosks a few times and I can’t imagine someone with failing eyesight or unused to computers messing with them. It’s funny how quickly people who use computers all day long–like me– and know their use is simple can’t get (or recall–for some of us) that there’s a real learning curve that might be extremely frustrating and isn’t intuitive. And the fact is some people don’t even HAVE a computer. Amazing but true.
Good grief, people, how feeble we’ve become! First it was the metric system that we couldn’t adapt to, then the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin that we couldn’t handle, and now parking kiosks are just too hard for us. Let’s hope word of this doesn’t get out to parts of the world where real problems present themselves every day.
when you are a merchant losing business, it is a real problem.. west hartford and the State loses revenue when businesses close and people don’t shop. you are naive to think this will not have long term repercussions. They may be making money from parking now but if no one ones to shop/dine, ha ha, no one makes money
I kind of resent the insinuation that there’s something wrong with me for finding the kiosks annoying when I can run rings around most people on computers and other electronic devices. I’ve used parking kiosks in several cities including NYC, and have had no issues with any of them, but the ones in W. Hartford are not the same. In my opinion they were poorly designed. So I think it’s insulting to blame the people for this.
By the way in WH Center I once could not read the readout on a kiosk because of sun glare. I had 3 YOUNGER people standing nearby who I asked for help and none of whom could read it either.
[…] the store closing was announced in late November, the plan was to cease operations at the end of December 2015. Merchandise was deeply discounted […]