Easthampton is home to Williston, Mt. Tom’s Ice Cream, Tandem, Dunkin’, Easthampgon Crystal and Mineral, and perhaps most importantly, an up-and-coming feline micro influencer.
Alice the cat is, according to her Instagram profile, the “Heiress to Easthampton’s Wonderland Vintage.”
Wonderland, located at 56 Cottage Street, is quite popular among some Williston students due to their wide array of vintage and local finds, and of course because of Alice.
Alice, the shop’s cat, was rescued in South Carolina when a friend of Beth’s McElhiney’s, the shop’s owner, found the kitten while hiking.
“He was on a walk with his dog and his dog just started going a little crazy and out popped this kitten,” Francesca Hansen-DiBello, McElhiney’s assistant, told The Willistonian. “He called a shelter out there who said to put her back out, and he was like, she’ll die! [The shelter said] we’ll put her down if you bring her here. So that’s when he decided he needed to find a place for her.”
Alice’s Instagram account, @aliceinwonderland413, documents her life with cute photos and videos. It was started by McElhiney’s former assistant. When Alice is in the store, customers are always told to look out for her.
“People are usually surprised, we like to tell anyone if they walk in if Alice is in that day so that if anyone has allergies or if she’s walking around they don’t step on her,” Hansen-DiBello said. “People are usually really excited and want to spend time with her and give her pets and love.”
Maya Libraro, a sophomore from Menlo Park, Calif., follows Alice on Instagram and said she often goes to Wonderland on Sundays.
Sarah Drucker, a senior from Great Barrington, Mass., is also a fan of the store and of Alice.
“I went there once and they let me pet the cat, which immediately made me love it there,” she said. “I felt very welcomed. I bought this really cool dress, and they gave ten percent off for being a student.”
According to Hansen-DiBello, Wonderland is a mix of contemporary, vintage, and local finds.
“It’s very much just Beth, the owner’s style,” Hansen-DiBello said. “When she sees something she wants in the store she’ll get it so we have a really eclectic mix of things. On the vintage end she goes to estate sales and bids on items online. We have a really wide array of vintage items from the 40s through the 80s on the rack.”
“We also have a lot more historical items in the basement and in storage from as far back as Edwardian, some really cool stuff. And we also have a lot of local things like prosperity candles and seawitch soap,” said Hansen-DiBello.
If Alice isn’t enough to get you to go visit (which she absolutely should be), then perhaps Wonderland’s 10% student discount and friendly staff will.