Page 13 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

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Ludlow
what customers want and what other stores like us are doing. We try to stay in tune with what’s happening so we can deliver the best to our customers.”
Downtown Developments
The town has been focusing on its downtown area in recent years as well, not just at Ludlow Mills, but in the East Street corridor, where it has planned extensive infrastructure improvements to make the street more safe, pedes- trian-friendly, and aesthetically pleas- ing, as well as expanding its District Improvement Financing (DIF) area, which had previously covered just the footprint of the mills, to East Street.
Karen
Randall says location is her business’s number-one asset.
Continued from page 11
well as family activities that peak in the fall with pumpkin decorating, scare- crow making, and seasonal games. Randall said the farm draws regulars from a roughly 20-mile range, from communities like Longmeadow, West- field, and Enfield, Conn. “Sometimes people make a weekend trip just for their groceries. We have a lot of spe- cialty grocery; we do a lot of gluten-free and allergy-friendly food. We have a big following for that.”
But after talking about what Ran- dall’s Farm offers, she was quick to explain what Ludlow itself offers — notably its location off Mass Pike exit 54 and near a number of growing residential communities. It also ben- efits from its own growth, with new residential developments in recent years (more on that later).
“We’re in a great location. Loca- tion, I would say, is our number-one asset,” Randall told BusinessWest.
“Center Street, where the pike exit is, is pretty built out and super busy. There are a lot of businesses there. But the downtown area, I feel like we need to really focus on that, because residents’ quality of life will rise if we can create a more exciting downtown area.”
“Having the turnpike less than a
mile away, people in the surround- ing towns who are using the turnpike drive by us very often. Belchertown has grown, all the surrounding towns have grown, and that has contributed to our growth. And the town of Lud- low has grown tremendously since we started.
“It’s a great community to have a business in, with great people. The town gives us excellent young employ- ees; we have a lot of people that start in high school, and hopefully they stay while they go to college and come back and work holidays or weekends or summers,” she went on. “Some
of our young employees stay with us for six years or so until they graduate from college, and then we hate to lose them. They become nurses and engi- neers and go on to their careers, and they leave a big hole for us because they were excellent employees.”
All that said, “the business is doing well,” Randall noted. “We continue to grow and change with the trends and
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