AMHERST, Mass. — Inside Zanna, sunlight pours through large corner windows onto racks of colorful clothing. Dresses, jackets and patterned tops line the boutique floor while owner Amy Benson greets customers as they walk in.
Benson, 51, has spent most of her life in retail, including more than three decades at the same store. Today, she runs Zanna, a women’s clothing boutique in downtown Amherst known for its bright atmosphere and loyal clientele.
Amy Benson stands outside Zanna in Amherst, Massachusetts. Benson bought the boutique in 2019 after working there for decades. (Ahmad Todd).
“I absolutely love what I do,” Benson said. “I love my customers. I love everything about what I’m doing.”
Benson lives in Montague, about a half-hour north of Amherst, and commutes each day through the countryside to open the store.
She first began working at the shop in 1994 when she was 20 years old.
“Since 1994, since I was 20 years old,” Benson said. “I’ve been in retail since I was 15 years old.”
The store itself has a long history in Amherst. It began 55 years ago as a shoe store called the Shoe Bin on Main Street. The founder, Mina, eventually moved the business closer to the center of town, between Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts.
Over time, a clothing store opened next door to the shoe shop, and the two businesses eventually merged into what is now Zanna.
Benson was still a student at UMass Amherst when the store expanded in the mid-1990s. She helped plan the renovation that reshaped the space customers see today.
“My summer project was the expansion of the store,” Benson said. “I sat in on every meeting and helped with every decision around everything you could imagine.”
Today, the boutique sells women’s clothing from a mix of established and independent brands. The store’s customers range widely in age and profession, including faculty members, lawyers, doctors and longtime residents of the surrounding communities.
“My age group here is from 19 years old,” Benson said. “I had a 98-year-old customer in today.”
Many shoppers come looking for clothing for special occasions such as weddings, graduations or professional events.
“I want to make sure the things I have in my store have really good quality standards,” Benson said.
Amy Benson displays a dress inside Zanna. (Ahmad Todd)
The boutique’s business model depends on something that has become increasingly unpredictable: discretionary spending.
“People only have so much discretionary income to spend,” Benson said.
When household costs rise or economic uncertainty spreads, she said, those purchases are often the first to disappear.
“Once those increase, then their discretionary decreases,” Benson said. “Then my main competition might be getting their money, like the Targets, the Walmarts.”
“That’s my big competition — TJ Maxx, Marshalls,” she added. “They’ll get the money and I won’t.”
Sarah Whitman, 44, an Amherst resident shopping downtown, said she visits stores like Zanna for special occasions but is more selective than she used to be.
“I definitely think more about where my money goes now,” Whitman said. “Clothes like this are something I buy when there’s a reason — like a wedding or graduation.”
“You still want to support local businesses,” she said. “But when groceries and everything else cost more, you’re not browsing the same way.”
Benson bought the business in 2019, a strong year for retail. Less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the store to close for three months.
“We were completely shut down,” she said.
Sales dropped sharply during 2020 and 2021 before rebounding somewhat in the following years. Recently, however, Benson says business has flattened again as economic uncertainty weighs on consumer confidence.
“They were throwing us life rafts,” Benson said of pandemic relief loans. “But a lot of folks really think the government really stepped in and helped you guys. They really didn’t.”
“The economy and the world will sway someone’s buying habits,” she said.
Despite those challenges, Benson says the store remains stable, with steady daily sales and a loyal base of repeat customers.
Clothing displays inside Zanna highlight the boutique’s colorful styles and independent brands. (Ahmad Todd)
“It is stressful owning a business,” she said. Yet Benson says the store’s atmosphere is just as important as the clothes themselves.
When global news feels heavy or economic conditions tighten, she tries to make the shop feel like a refuge for customers.
“What I can do is promote Zanna in a really happy, positive way,” Benson said. “We’re going to promote happiness.”
That philosophy extends from social media posts to seasonal window displays designed to brighten the downtown streetscape.
“I can promote Zanna as a happy place to come to,” she said.
For Benson, the store is not simply a business. It is the place where she has spent most of her adult life, built relationships with customers and fulfilled a longtime goal.
“This is exactly what I’m meant to do,” she said.
Source List:
Amy Benson
Owner, Zanna (Amherst, Mass)
Email: Amy@zanna.com
Age: 51
Interview date: 3/14/2026
Mode: In person
Sarah Whitman
Resident/shopper (Amherst, Mass)
Email: S.Whitman82@gmail.com
Age: 44
Interview date: 3/14/2026
Mode: In person
Reference List:
I did not explicitly reference anything in my story. I read the local papers to get some sense of the town and its community but there is nothing in particular I can point to and say “I used that”.
ahmadtodd.com 