Shopping in New Britain

Since its humble beginnings in 1935 as a small health-food store that specialized in yogurt, GNC has evolved into the world's largest specialty retailer of nutritional products. The chain's more than 4,800 retail locations throughout the country stock numerous vitamins and supplements, all of which meet the company's strict standards for truthful labeling, ingredient safety, and product potency. They carry supplements that aid in sports nutrition, protein intake, diet, digestion, and beauty. Equally as dedicated to customers' shopping experiences as it is to product quality, the company created GNC University, an online learning platform, to help staff members bone up on nutrition and fitness knowledge. The knowledgeable sales associates field questions about everything from weight-management plans to stacking supplements for optimum earlobe strength.

Since 1994, KarTele has connected consumers with useful electronics and handy wireless devices from manufacturers such as Apple, Directed Electronics, and Pioneer. KarTele’s stock of high-tech gadgets such iPad tablets and iPhones enable mobile computing, and remote car starters let drivers access vehicles from far away, which comes in handy during cold-weather months or when being chased by a frisky squirrel. Experienced auto technicians deftly install these digital add-ons to cars and perform repair work on all of KarTele’s products.

Cutting Edge divides its staff into a skate crew, snow crew, bike crew, and longboard crew. These teams of experienced specialists can answer nearly any extreme-sport question you throw at them -- and tune up your gear for safe and steady riding. On the shop floor, rows of BMX and Mountain bikes eagerly await their chance to pop some wheelies and tear up dirt trails. The shop's walls barely peek out from behind a vast selection of boards, shoes, and helmets. Cutting Edge is also a dealer of Kona, Santa Cruz, Pivot, Niner, and Transition bikes.

Passonno Paints has equipped brush wielders with high-quality paint for more than 80 years. A friendly, knowledgeable staff helps patrons navigate thousands of hues from series such as Rustic Colors and The Historic Colour Collection, which includes all 149 colors of President Lincoln’s pet rainbow. In addition to transforming dwellings with vivid colors and equipping windows with blinds, Passonno Paints has also created an award-winning latex-paint-recycling program.

Arthur H. Simmons was a cabinetmaker, and a good one at that. So eager was he to outfit the homes of his community with his creations that in 1879—the same year that Thomas Edison tested the first practical light bulb and Alexander Graham Bell invented the Liberty Bell—the skilled craftsman opened the doors of Simmons Furniture in his hometown of Adams. Though the world has changed in the long years since Simmons Furniture’s founding, and the business is now under the helm of the Riley family, Arthur H. Simmons’s original commitment to selling quality furniture and meeting his customers’ needs remains the company’s cornerstone.

Now, more than a century since the store’s inception, staffers stock both of Simmons Furniture’s locations with home goods and furnishings from a carefully curated assortment of brands, including Ashley, Furniture Traditions, and Serta. The knowledgeable employees circulate through each store’s showrooms, ready to help shoppers to find a suitable accent piece or to answer questions relating to which of the store’s wardrobes enable direct commutes to Narnia. Along with American-made brands, eco-friendly furnishings, and luxurious wares imported from around the globe, Simmons Furniture also continues to support the community with a section dedicated solely to goods forged by local artists and merchants.

The rigid heddle loom is a relatively simple machine. Jennifer Baum, The Weaving Shed's owner and a juried fiber artist, likes it because a beginning student can set it up and start a scarf within 45 minutes. Along with the loom's simplicity, Jen appreciates the therapeutic value of its rhythmic, back-and-forth cadence. As students work the loom to steadily pull fiber threads into a hand-woven item, they also shed the stress of their day. Jen sees these transformations—both in the progress of the project and the demeanor of the student—as she guides the technique and lends tips to the up to eight students that attend each class in the newly-expanded studio.

Along with classes, The Weaving Shed also spearheads a Farm to Yarn program with local farms. The natural or hand-dyed sheep's wool or alpaca fleece becomes a sustainable, specialty fiber for weaving, knitting, felting, crotchet, and spinning projects. This interest in cultivating local fibers hits especially close to Jen's home, AKA Sunny Knoll Farm, where, with her husband and children, she helps raise an ever-growing alpaca herd. She describes the alpaca as a very "zen-lifestyle animal," even though scientific journals refer to them as "respiring shag carpets." Along with laughing at the "fun family adventure" that the experience has been, she also praises the hypoallergenic qualities of the fleece and its 22 naturally occurring colors.