Retail

Hawaii Fluid Art is targeting early March to be up and running at the western Henrico mall, which is in the midst of a redevelopment by bringing in untraditional mall tenants.

“It’s nice to offer this neighborhood a place to stay and hang out rather than to just pass through,” said owner Mariela Gavino, who started I Love You So Much Books as a pop-up in late 2023.

“There aren’t a lot of spaces where parents who work remotely can go,” said owner Lacey Cain. “Maybe they don’t need a full-time daycare, they just need a little bit of help.” 

“We want it to be a space for collectors at every level. If you have $200 to spend or $100,000 to spend, we just want to have a conversation around art and collecting,” said co-founder Laura Martin Mills.

“When you’re getting a crafts degree, no one actually has any faith that you’ll do anything with it,” said KEBaubles & Co. owner Kristen Burton. “They picture macaroni and popsicle sticks, but that’s not what it is.”

Hechizo originally made ceramic jewelry, and shifted to emphasize lighting about a year ago. Its lamps and sconces start at $700.

The 47-year-old local car wash chain is now owned by the company’s CFO Mark Harrison and COO Tyree Brown, who have been with Car Pool for 10 and 37 years respectively.

The greater Richmond region will soon be down to just two Macy’s stores as its location in Colonial Heights is on the chopping block along with dozens of others nationwide.

The national headlines reporting the closure of all of Party City’s 700 U.S. stores missed one important fact: the chain’s two Richmond-area stores are independently owned by a franchisee who has no intention of going out of business.

Don’t miss this recap of a busy year in the local retail scene, as some of Richmond’s longer-tenured retailers passed the torch to new leaders, shifted focus on other lines of business and expanded their footprints.