By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Susan Altschuler, a Westport resident for over 30 years, has owned a retail business in Florida for eight years, and on Nov. 3, she opened a shop closer to home — “Spice” in Sconset Square.

The name doesn’t refer to culinary seasonings, but to items Altschuler considers to be “the spice of your life.” These include “home décor, art, a little fashion, tabletop items for entertaining, children’s clothing and more, she said.

Altschuler originally started her business called Spice Del Ray in the Florida town where she has a home, selling merchandise for home decoration and entertaining from around the globe. She also previously had another local business, Table Envy, on Post Road in Westport.

Altschuler wanted to expand by adding another Spice store in Westport, and called developer David Waldman to arrange a pop-up store, she said. She learned the space at 8 Sconset Square, was vacant after the store Bespoke moved out recently.

Altschuler said she was excited to open Spice in Westport, a town that she loves, she said, because it is a great place for people of all ages. “People my age aren’t leaving,” she said, “and there is an influx of younger people.”

She remembers when Westport was “the town of Paul Newman and we were raising babies in our 30s.” Part of the attraction of having a business and living in Westport is “a very good school system. It’s a great place for kids,” she said.

That’s one reason she has a collection of specialty clothing for infants and young children, as well as different kinds of merchandise designed to appeal to many kinds of shoppers.

“It’s a compilation of feel-good things,”  Altschuler said.

Spice at Sconset Square, 15 Myrtle Ave., hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with plans to stay open Thursday until 8 p.m. in the future; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 203-349-5252.

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.