On a chilly but sunny Saturday morning, residents came out for the grand opening of the newest Village of Montgomery addition: Montgomery Mercantile.

Mother-daughter pair Marlene Wood and Taylor Raimundo are the brains and owners of the shop, which is a little bit of everything. “Basically we’re a gift shop. It’s four rooms, and each room kind of has a different theme,” said Wood.

The shop contains a huge main room with loads of gifts, on top of a men’s section, a cocktail section and a jewelry department. They also have a whole room dedicated to candy, with specific vendors like Saratoga Chocolate Company. On top of this there is also a room/area dedicated to baby gifts, like swaddlers, bowls and sippy cups. The shop also has a section for products from 1802 Beekman, a 100 percent goat-milk skincare line they’ll be carrying.

Little knick knacks and antiques fill in all the other spaces in between.

The idea for the shop sort of transpired from nostalgia. Wood mentions some old shops that were in Montgomery when she moved there in 1990. “When I first moved into Montgomery in 1990 there were two gift shops. One was called the Chocolate Goose and the other was called the Village Sampler and both of those were amazing. That same concept; gifts, chocolates, and both run by women,” said Wood.

Over time these stores closed and Wood felt like the village was missing them. Being a previous restaurant owner of the Daily Bean Cafe in Montgomery, Wood was interested in starting a new business. Over the span of four years, she and her daughter have formulated Montgomery Mercantile. When this space, which is located at 18 Bridge St. became available this past spring, the pair decided to take the leap to hopefully fill the void Wood has felt with the lack of local shops.

Although some of Raimundo’s art pieces can be found around the shop due to her background in art, she also has a history in accounting.“Art is my biggest passion, but I also found that I had an aptitude for mathematics, so when I went to college, I did get a degree in mathematics and then accounting. I did that for a while but there’s definitely a void in my life,” said Raimundo.

This is a large part of Raimundo’s drive to open the shop.“I really thought this space would be a good marriage of those two things. I do the bookkeeping but then I also flex my creative spirit,” she mentioned.

Both Wood and Raimundo are no strangers to working with family. After Wood closed her restaurant, which she noted Raimundo worked in for some time, she (Wood) decided to work with her husband. “I worked for him (Wood’s husband) and ironically, Taylor is his full time bookkeeper and accountant at his office, so we’ve been working together now for about three or four years. We actually share an office,” said Wood.