Westford takes its connection to nature very seriously, so when looking for a location to set up her new birdfeeder store, it only made sense that Sandy Hurd decided to set up shop where she did.
When Wild Birds Unlimited opened its doors at Westford Plaza in mid-August, it marked a long journey in bird watching for Hurd that reached from early age to training programs throughout the country.
Added to retail management experience earlier in life, the opportunity only seemed to make sense.
“I’ve been interested in bird feeding all my life, my grandmother got me started when I was four or five years old,” she said. “(So) when I had an opportunity to think about a career change, this is something that I naturally gravitated toward.
Although she worked from home in the Westford area for the past thirty years, Hurd looked at various locations nearby before settling on Westford Plaza for her location.
Between rent, nearby stores bringing in traffic, and an appropriate sized space, the spot was almost ideal for what she needed.
“We’re here in a plaza, it’s important to be near other businesses that draw traffic,” she said. “Right now we have Cornerstone Square and Westford Valley Marketplace right across the way, and those are places that draw traffic all day long and also on the weekends.”
Another item taken into account during the search for a location was last fall’s Special Town Meeting article aiming to ban birdfeeders in town.
While the effort failed, Hurd says even with the spread of bears into Westford, she’s been
able to counsel customers on ways they can feed birds without attracting bears.
And those customers have been slowly increasing, with hopes that Grand Opening events on the first weekend of September will help continue to result in more sales.
“We have fabulous days and we have slow days as any business would,” she said. “We’ve had many repeat customers after only (two weeks), so that’s been really satisfying for us.”
More information on the Grand Opening events as well as the store itself are available online at westford.wbu.com.
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