A popular Amherst retailer that got its start 50 years ago in Massachusetts, announced that it will soon be changing its name.

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The next time that you make your way into The Boulevard shopping complex off of Niagara Falls Boulevard in Amherst, you may notice something that looks a little different.  The Christmas Tree Shops store located at 1701 Niagara Falls Blvd, will soon be rebranded as "CTS".  Say it ain't so!!!

The chain, which operates 80 stores across 20 US states, got its start on Cape Cod some 50 years ago.  But, if you're like me and didn't grow up in an area with Christmas Tree Shops, you may have thought the same thing that I did.."Why do they have a store that only sells Christmas trees?"

Hence, the name change.  The Company was sold in 2020 and the new parent company, Handil Holdings LLC, is planning on slowly changing the name of the stores across its 80 locations.  The first phase will include opening 15 new stores, which will be the first to bare the store's new name... "CTS".

We weren't expecting them to go all Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC on us either, yet here we are. Speaking of KFC, the reason they changed their name wasn't the urban legend going around that they didn't actually sell chicken anymore, but rather because the State of Kentucky was trying to cash in on brands using the name "Kentucky".  KFC would have needed to get the state's permission and would also be required to pay licensing fees.  Instead, they just shortened their name to the now familiar "KFC".

Anyway, back to the new "CTS".  The new stores are expected to open by the end of the year.  Handil Holdings LLC will then begin the process of rebranding the company's 80 existing locations, including the Amherst location, and the store located on Jefferson Road in the Rochester suburb of Henrietta.

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