TCBY closes in Avon Marketplace

It was a bittersweet day April 6 as owners Lisa and Mark Arnold closed the doors to TCBY in Avon Marketplace and encouraged Farmington Valley customers to visit their Bloomfield frozen yogurt shop. The Simsbury couple, who opened TCBY Avon Marketplace in June 2010, said their five-year lease was up and they had to make a business decision whether to stay. They opted to consolidate operations, which include catering, in Bloomfield.

“Our rent was going up 30 percent and other charges like utilities as well,” Mark Arnold said. “There’s also been a saturation of the market for frozen yogurt.”

A flurry of frozen yogurt shops opened in the Valley after TCBY, although many of them have closed as well, Lisa Arnold said, and she wonders if the trend is over. Their business is brisk in Bloomfield, however, and operating costs are less expensive there, she said.

“We’ve had five good years here in Avon Marketplace but it was a matter of economics,” Lisa Arnold said. “We love the Valley and will remain active here.”

Her husband said that involvement includes membership in the Avon Chamber of Commerce, which named TCBY Avon Marketplace as Small Business of the Year. The award will be handed out at the chamber’s annual meeting on May 20. They will also continue catering events at venues such as the Talcott Mountain Music Festival and the Simsbury Performing Arts concert series as well as local sports events.

“In Bloomfield we’ll be catering 15 concerts on the green,” Lisa Arnold said. “The town is a growing, up and coming community with fabulous restaurants. And a building with 450 apartments is going up right across from us, which will be another draw.”

TCBY is at 836 Park Ave. in the Wintonbury Mall, which has new owners who are planning to turn the complex into a Bloomfield Center attraction, she said. The location is also central for their catering customers, who from Glastonbury to Thomaston. For information, call 860-263-7360 or visit http://store.tcby.com/home/wintonburymall.