After about 10 years of being vacant, a new business is taking over 12,000 square feet along Main Street in Manchester.
For the last 26 years, Cecilia Boamah has been running Accra Market in East Hartford and is opening another business in Manchester named Accra Mall USA that sells household items and nonperishable food at a discounted price.
“We have a lot of dollar stuff, OK. We have 50-cents stuff. we have as high as $150 items, especially when you go to the hair accessories and hair braiding and the hair extension,” she said.
The store carries everything from groceries to household items and fabrics of all kinds, which are important to Boamah because the patterns are used in Africa. She is originally from Ghana.
“I have right now about 240 varieties of fabrics,” she said.
For Boamah, opening the store is more than just opening another business.
“We want to bring life again to Manchester Main Street. That’s why I brought this business here,” she said.
Boamah said the space has been vacant for about 10 years.
Manchester residents like Randy Rutka said they hope it brings traffic to Main Street.
“Hopefully it brings some more people downtown in to shop,” said Rutka.
The hope for Kristal Masters, who owns 41 Closets Boutique and Consignment across the street, is that the new store will benefit all the local businesses nearby.
“I hope that they do very well,” said Masters. “I hope that they bring a bigger crowd to Main Street because we do need to support our Main Street because without a Main Street we don’t have a nice town.”
Boamah hopes the store will open sometime after Christmas.
Source: NBC Connecticut