Cat ears and ‘lots of familiar faces’: Eclectic shop enters final chapter

Marie Foley discovered her signature cat-ear headbands while at a rave with her niece in San Francisco. 

A few decades later, she’s receiving rave reviews as she winds down a long career and prepares to close her eclectic Main Street gift shop, Revolutionary Acton. 

Foley has been a staple in the local business scene for years. She’s a past president of the Chamber of Commerce and spent 28 years running Acton Hand Designs with her sister, Toni Sawyer. She opened Revolutionary Acton in 2014 and has expanded over the years in a jam-packed basement at 32 Main Street. 

Foley kicked off a retirement sale last week and said she was excited to see “lots of familiar faces” in the crowd. 

Forty people showed up for the store’s 10 a.m. opening on September 4. She said she’s never had that kind of line.

Two hours after opening, people still packed the store and Foley was still running a register and the gift-wrapping station. At one point, she thanked those in line for their patience. 

“Thank you, Marie, for years of fun,” loyal customer Brooke Redmond shouted in response.

Foley calls her shop a “mini-mall of wonderfulness, creativity, and community.” Chatting with a reporter while ringing up customers, she said she wanted “a sense of community and to lead with care and kindness” in her store. 

Redmond said Foley delivered. 

“It’s a community,” she said. “It’s a vibe. And I have counted on it as a local resource for joy and wonder.”

‘A great time’

Foley started the Revolutionary Acton gift shop by subleasing space from Bonnie Albright and her shop, Albright Art Supply. Foley later bought Albright’s store. She added the Acton Toy Box after the Acton Toy Shop went out of business during the Covid pandemic. All three stores share the same space, and they’re all closing as Foley retires.

Elizabeth Mulhall worked at the Toy Shop and said she was grateful for the opportunity to continue selling toys in town with Foley. “We’ve had a great time,” she said. 

Foley brought a splash of extra color into Acton Hand Designs by dyeing her hair a different shade each month — autumnal orange in November, Grinch green around Christmas. 

After battling cancer, she said, her hair could no longer handle bleaching. She found her replacement for hair dye in the mid-2000s when she accompanied a niece to an early morning party and met a woman selling cat-ear headbands. She has since bought nearly 100 sets. 

“Now I can’t go anywhere without them,” Foley said, wearing a pair of furry purple ears. 

Foley said she works from 60 to 100 hours per week to run her store. She technically lives out of town but, on account of her crushing schedule, she often tells people she lives in Acton and sleeps in Littleton. 

Now, she’s looking forward to catching up on reading in retirement — she favors historical fiction, autobiographies, and the occasional “trashy” romance novel — as she picks through stacks of books around her house.

“She’s worked really hard,” Redmond said of Foley. “She definitely deserves to sit back and enjoy the sunsets at this point.”

Foley didn’t immediately announce a last day. She expects to keep the doors open at least through September and, as of last week, still had Christmas decor that she hadn’t brought into the store. 

“Hopefully, all of it will go,” she said. After a roaring start to her sale, she predicted, “I think it will.”