Beacon toy store/clothing shop shutters
Karen Donohue, who operated Echo, a dual storefront with toys and women’s clothing and accessories, ended her 20-year run in Beacon on Oct. 30.
She said the pandemic shutdown had hurt business, but that she also has been dealing with chronic health issues. “I’m looking forward to better health and new ventures,” she wrote online. “Stay tuned.”
Echo began as an art gallery displaying her mother’s hand-painted tables and wind-up toys, Donohue said in an interview in June. She moved twice as her inventory expanded.
Donohue said the mandated closure of businesses by the state had hurt Echo particularly because “this store is very much an experience — you come in and you touch everything — so it didn’t feel good to allow people to continue doing that. And if the perception was that I was putting people in danger by staying open, that could affect sales.”
Echo partially re-opened in June but was struggling. “We can keep limping along,” she said at the time. “But if this is the forever plan — wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart — my business is personal. It’s a lot of ‘What do you recommend for a 5-year-old?’ We’ll try our best and wait and see.”
