We’ve talked about impediments to shop local and Main Street programs before. You can create a fabulous shop local campaign and local currency program, but if your community isn’t positioned for growth, you’ll be swimming upstream against hurricane tides.
Does Your Community Have….
Ample parking. Visitors won’t come if they have to circle your downtown area looking for a spot. Creating outlying parking spots and shuttling people in may work for a festival but not for a typical Saturday morning shopping trip.
Free or inexpensive parking. Free (all the time) is ideal but otherwise a few hours, or a day or two out of the week, where parking is free may be enough to lure people downtown. If you have parking meters, placing a two hour limit on them prohibits people from doing much more than just eating. If you need limits, look at extending them to 4 and not 2, that way they can eat and stroll the downtown without feeling rushed.
A beautiful spot to linger or stroll. Wide sidewalks with planters of flowers goes a long way to making people feel welcome and encouraging them to spend some time walking around and browsing. Some businesses even provide fresh water and bowls for dogs so that dog-walking owners can spend more time enjoying the shops.
Businesses that stay open past 5. It’s impossible to lure the after-work crowd if all your businesses close at 5 or before. If you can’t work with businesses to change their hours, create a monthly shop local stroll and ask merchants to stay open late on Friday or Saturday night.
A merchants group or chamber of commerce that promotes your Main Street undertakings. A uniting group can help businesses co-promote one another by providing things like maps or local currency (or gift certificate) programs that entice visitors and locals to buy local. These types of organizations often have the ability and resources to unite the individual business owners and provide them much needed support.
What are we missing? What aspects are critical to great Main Street appeal?
