Duchess 77 Union Street, Newton Centre

Owner Rachel Sciaba of Brighton has owned and operated Duchess since 2009.   Duchess features women’s contemporary apparel.

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The Urban Grape 7 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill (near Star Market) Business hours: Monday through Wednesday, 9:30AM to 9:30PM; Thursday through Saturday 9:30AM to 11:00PM; Sundays from 12:00PM to 6:00PM)

Husband-and-wife team TJ and Hadley Douglas of Boston opened The Urban Grape in 2010 offering a vast selection of wine, spirits, beer and sake with a philosophy of unparalleled customer service coupled with a “no wine snobs” mentality.    What makes the Urban Grape different is the way in which they organize their store; they call it simply, Progressive Shelving. Essentially, the bottles are grouped together by their weight or viscosity. TJ tastes every bottle that comes in (they have a rotating 850 bottle collection) and categorizes the wines by color, then weight. The progressive setup allows customers to experience similarly styled wines that they might not have otherwise tried.

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The US Postal Service is considering shutting down five Newton Post Offices: West Newton, Lower Falls, Boston College, Newton Upper Falls, and Nonantum.  Nationally, 3700 offices are potentially being eliminated, with a disproportionate five here in Newton. The traditional town center used to include an assortment of places that made for civic life:  a village green, town hall, usually some kind of memorial, a few shops, and the post office.  Each of these has gradually lost its importance over the decades and now one – the village post office – appears on the brink of extinction.

This initiative is a “top down” strategy, originating in the federal office of the USPS in Washington DC.  They are taking surveys in the local post offices, and held two public meetings in order to assess how these closures will affect the local residents and customers.At the Public Meetings on Nov. 9 and 22, 2012 at War Memorial Auditorium, the turnout was large, and residents spoke about what key places their local post offices are in their neighborhood lives. Businesses testified about how they had located near some of the branches slated to be closed, and how having a nearby post office was an economic component to deciding where to locate their offices.  [Read more →]

Directly from the Newton Cultural Alliance…

The Stroll features one-night only sales, music, cold weather goodies, a community sing-a-long, dance, visual art exhibits and sale, dining and more!  Join your friends and neighbors for this exciting evening. Make it a new family tradition!

Ready for the holidays? The Newton Cultural Alliance’s Arts Stroll & Shop is making holiday shopping and spirit easy for you. On Thursday, December 8, enjoy extended retail shopping hours in Newton Centre while you are entertained by NCA performers and artists!

Small businesses throughout the City are celebrating Small Business Saturday today. There’s still plenty of time to get out and enjoy a little more of one of the things that makes Newton special – Our unique collection of merchants.

The following – received from Green Planet Kids (22 Lincoln Street in Newton Highlands) puts it quite elegantly:

“Dear Friends,

Today marks the 2nd Annual “Small Business Saturday” movement, which was created last year to encourage shoppers to support local, independent businesses. It’s a counterpart to Black Friday, which promotes shopping at malls and big box stores, and Cyber Monday, which encourages shopping on the web.

Shopping locally fuels the local economy, creates jobs in your community, and preserves neighborhoods.

For the first time since we started our business in 1990, there are several vacant retail spaces in the Highlands, and there has been quite a large turnover in the past year. Running a small business is very challenging, especially during economic downturns. We work very hard to keep our business healthy and strong, and we have been successful because of your support. We still love what we do, and we cherish our connection to you and your children.

Please consider spending more of your holiday dollars with us and our neighbors, and help strengthen the entire community.

If you see an item online or in an ad or catalog, call us first to see if we have it. We are stocked to the brim, with more shipments coming in every day, and as you know, we carry completely different products from those you will find at the big box stores.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving weekend, we want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support. Without you, we wouldn’t be here doing what we do.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

Annabelle, John, Besha (the dog) and our Wonderful Staff
Green Planet Kids”

The invitation comes from the Mayor and his Director of Community Relations, Sarah Ecker, but now it’s coming from us, too.  We’ll be at this Village Summit. Come join us at the Village Summit!  It’s at Newton North High School, 1:00-4:00 PM, on Sunday, December 4th.

Here are the details:
Join Mayor Setti Warren and your neighbors for a conversation about improving the quality of life in Newton’s thirteen villages. [Read more →]