It Takes a Community

and a thoughtful approach to the items she sells. As is so often the case, her inspiration started years before. Originally from Somerset, MA, it is easy to imagine her as a young child with an appreciative eye.

“When I was little, my mom and I loved to go to shops, arts and crafts and the stencil store. We spent our days exploring. It feels nostalgic to me now to be here” she said. “I find the Main St. wherever I go and look for these kinds of stores.”

By Carol Masshardt

Kait McKenna Radkowski, 36, opened her East Broadway business “In Good Company,” in 2021, and it is the kind of business that makes a city feel like a small town. A former interior designer, Kait provides a welcoming spirit in the community

“In Good Company” she has created more than a place with interesting gifts and reasonably priced items representing many local craftspeople. She has a place easy to visit with a combination of calm artistry and edgy, fun gifts. It all pulls together with a committed staff of two, Jess and Robin.

“It is nice if people buy something, but what I really like are the conversations,” she said. “I like being that place where people stop in on their walks.” It has become that bright spot with the welcoming feeling she envisioned.

On a recent stormy Saturday, sisters, Ariel and Lauren, originally form Vermont and now living in South Boston, shopped, smiling and comparing items. “What’s not to like,” Lauren asked. “There’s always new stuff and you don’t have to travel,” added Ariel.

Kait is a graduate of Wentworth Institute, daughter of a father who she describes as having an “entrepreneurial mind-set,” and her mother, who worked as a civilian for the Navy.

“It’s important to me to do something with my days and life that is something I love. It’s about what can make you happy at a different level, but it is hard for anyone to leave a path that is safe,” she said. Leaving an established career path of over a decade, she has established some guiding values as she continues in this related but quite different venture.

Kait, a businesswoman, provides and derives joy from stories she hears. “I love it when people come in and ask about the craftsperson of something they like. Maybe their stories connect somehow,” she said.

This is not to say that any surviving business happens easily. Kait reflects about starting the business in South Boston, where she has lived for twelve years.

“Just starting a business is a challenge,” she said. Everything in the space has to be figured out, and it has to feel like me. But then, it does become personal, and you can feel vulnerable,” she said. “But it can be the most meaningful when it is the hardest.”

Kait McKenna Radkowski thinks about community naturally and has worked with the Spoke Gallery and co-sponsored a Pride event last year with Gray’s and American Provisions and plans are afoot for the same this year. She also credits her wife, Em, with offering the support she needs to do what she loves. “She always says “go for it,” and that enthusiasm and support is great to have,” she said.

In addition to doing some popups in the Seaport, her focus is on her newly refined space in an old building amidst a thriving community. She is also a Ceramicist, and if lucky, we may see some of her own work. In the meantime, her reward is simply, but artistically stated.

“The best of this is seeing people responding and the hundreds of conversations. They open up, I open up, we talk about ideas, and maybe someone gets confidence to do something they love,” she said. Not an ordinary goal in a driven world, but one that enhances a South Boston version of Main St. on East Broadway.

(Carol Masshardt can be reached at carolhardt@comcast.net)