Chill Gives Westwood a Vintage Style

At a distance, Westwood might not appear to be the go-to place for vintage clothing and gifts. But at Chill, that's exactly what you'll find.

Chill is what Wendy Hill, the store's co-owner, refers to as "the general store for hip people," offering a wide variety of gifts for a range of customers.

Hill opened the 300-square foot shop in April 2008 "to open a store that had unusual items, but something for everyone; items that you can't find anywhere else."

The store specializes in sales of unique and vintage jewelry, greeting cards, handbags, candle-holders, and other knickknacks that Hill says have a unique and "hip" feel many stores in the Boston suburbs don't feature.

A Westwood resident since 1994, Hill co-owns the shop with her sister-in-law, Needham resident Jayme Yellin. Both have one goal in mind: to give the customer something new every time they walk into the store.

"We constantly change things up," Yellin said. "So if someone sees a pair of earrings, and they don't buy them, we don't go back to the same vendor."

Much of Chill's merchandise comes from a select variety of vendors that Hill seeks out. Even through her travels, Hill has brought back products from vendors in Istanbul, Greece and even from more domestic locations such as Florida.

The point of constantly attaining products from new vendors, Hill said, is to provide a fresh and different feel for customers.

"We don't want you to see the same thing," she said. "We want it to be fresh every time you walk in."

The store tends to remain consistent with sales of the same children's items like sketchpads and toys, Hill added, as they have remained popular among customers. Chill also sells products by such clothing brands as Element and Billabong.

"I think we're the only store in the area that caries that," Hill said.

When new merchandise does come in, Hill said, the older items are moved and rotated on a sales rack offering a discount of 30 percent once every three weeks.

While she wouldn't disclose figures regarding the store's most recent revenue or profit, Hill emphasized that while Chill struggled a bit during the recession, things have been remarkably better for the store since the economy began to recover.

"Things got pretty flat," Hill said. "But things have definitely picked back up. With the uptick in the economy we have also experienced an uptick in sales."

In terms of demographics, the store aims at gifts for women from ages 7 through 70. And while Chill does not have its own website for online shopping, it does have a presence on Facebook. This fall, Hill hopes to turn the Facebook page into a sales resource, offering five items each month that can be purchased with a Paypal account.

Outside of Facebook, Chill does not advertise, Hill said. Word of mouth has proven to be a successful form of marketing for the store, and has been beneficial in bringing in regular and committed customers.

"Our faithful customers allowed us to stay open during the recession," Hill said.

Chill is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is closed Sundays and Mondays. The store will be closed entirely for the summer starting July 15, and will reopen again on September 1.

For more information, visit Chill's Facebook page or call the store at 781-326-4789.