When it comes to knowing what consumers want in terms gift items, Cheshire resident Anita Bruscino has always had just the right touch.
Her customer-focused style of doing business is reflected in the name of her business, Elegant Touch Fine Gifts & Jewelry, and by nearly 30 years in business. But now, Bruscino is preparing for the next phase in her life and will close the store at 1110 South Main St. in the next couple of weeks.
“I will miss the people who were my customers,” the 60-year-old Bruscino said. “You kind of feel like your a small part of their lives and their family events from all the times they have come in to buy gifts.”
Bruscino opened her business at the end of 1993 in a store front at 178 Main St. in Cheshire. She was in that location for 11 years before moving to her current location in the Country Plaza at S1115 South Main St.
Bruscino didn’t start her career in retail. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in mechanical engineering. She would later get a master’s degree in business administration from the Hartford campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Before launching her gift shop, Bruscino and her father worked in a family-owned manufacturing business where she rose to an executive level position in the company. Both Bruscino and her father left the business in 1993 in a dispute over the direction the company was taking.
Later that year, a friend from Waterbury who had been in the gift business suggested Bruscino might like a move into retail.
“I always liked the idea of working for myself,” she said. And so it was that Elegant Touch was launched.
Retail experts contacted by Hearst Connecticut Media said that owning and operating a retail business across three decades is pretty rare.
“It’s quite an accomplishment,” said Tim Phelan, president of the Connecticut Retail Network, a statewide trade group. “To do that, you have to be adaptable to changes in customer behavior.”
