If you’re trying to encourage people to shop local, you know getting them to adopt the concept is not hard. Getting them to your local stores, however, is more difficult.
Common Obstacles to Shopping Local
While the idea of shopping local seems like a great idea to most of your community, they may be facing obstacles that preclude them from getting downtown and spending the money. Removing these obstacles, or educating around them will increase the success of your campaign.
Traffic Issues and Construction
If your town is undergoing any major street repair or maintenance, it may affect people’s interest in coming downtown. While you can’t get rid of the congestion for them, you can provide them with alternate routes (via your website and social media platforms) as well as post pictures of the area. Often the imagined inability to navigate the streets is worse than the reality.
Parking
The same goes for parking. If people assume there’s not ample parking they won’t come down. Make sure people know where the best parking is and just how congested things are. Many people assume downtowns are difficult to park in.
You may also need to work with your city to see how you can alleviate problems such as no change for meters or weekend observances of parking meters. Would your city be willing to allow local stores to validate parking if something is purchased in the stores?
Hours
This is one of the reasons people choose big box stores over smaller local retailers. Box stores are often more convenient, opening earlier and staying open later, seven days a week. While it may not be profitable for local merchants to keep those hours all of the time, hosting monthly business after hour strolls or “Art Walks” can help people who normally are working while the stores are open, enjoy them on occasion.
Are you asking your community why they’re not shopping local? Maybe it’s time you did.
