In effort to revive ‘Main Street’, South Shore woman opens retail and candy store in Norwell

NORWELL, Mass. — Helping revive Main Street. That’s what one South Shore woman did opening a retail and penny candy store in downtown Norwell.

“We weren’t actually expecting to open up this store here,” said Melissa McNamara, owner of The Well. “It just kind of happened.”

Melissa McNamara had always driven by a historic building in the center of Norwell and admired its charm.

“But I just thought, you know, something bigger and better could happen with the building,” said McNamara.

Melissa is a realtor and the owner of the building contacted her one day looking to sell it. Melissa and her husband decided to buy it themselves—turning Melissa’s vision into reality.

“Neither of us have any real retail experience, but we’re so embedded in the community and we know so many people from this town and surrounding areas that have such great talents that we thought it would be a really good idea to bring in local artisans and kind of give them a brick and mortar to be able to, you know, display their artwork,” said McNamara.

Melissa opened her retail and penny candy store back in June. It’s located right on Main Street in downtown Norwell and she named it ‘The Well’.

“So one of the most exciting things that we did was we branded our own apparel,” said McNamara as she showed off her South Shore hats and sweatshirts.

Melissa sells her clothing, as well as home décor, jewelry, and food products from local artisans.

“The Mrs. Mekler’s Mercantile, so she has the sugar shack, which is in Cohasset,” said McNamara as she showed off some snacks from the local business.

Speaking of sugar, ‘The Well’ features endless amounts of sweets that not only children love, but their parents will also be reminded of when they were a kid in a candy store.

“We really wanted to make sure that we had literally something for everybody,” said McNamara. “So we wanted to have some of that old school, like nostalgic candy.”

Melissa wanted to make sure Norwell’s downtown had a one-stop shop, whether you were grabbing a gift for a friend, a baby shower, or last minute dinner party.

“I think the ultimate goal is just to bring something to our community. Norwell center. We always kind of giggle and laugh and say, if you blink, you’re going to miss it,” said McNamara. “It’s a small, quaint little town center. We don’t have any retail and now we do. So I just hope that the community really appreciates having us here.”

Melissa shows her appreciation for her community by donating to schools and fundraisers in town. She hopes ‘The Well’s’ success will lead to another ‘unexpected’ shop on a different main street.

“If I can scoop up another cute little building somewhere else in a local town, we would be totally open to, you know, growing and opening up maybe The Well, 2.0,” said McNamara.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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