Random thought that occurred to me as I drove down Main Street tonight. I think I was the only moving car at about 8:00pm. Friday Night Lights I think back to Friday nights when I was a teenager… the town was alive, there was a festival like atmosphere. Every store on main street was open until 9, and I think a bit more of main street was retail oriented. Everyone was out cruising, main street was just about bumper to bumper, cars moving slowly, windows down, sidewalks full of people. It was just about like it is nowdays, when there are special events on Main Street. But this was EVERY Friday night. And as the stores closed at 9, the movie theatre and restaurants and bars filled up. What do you think about the Chamber of Commerce or the Main Street Merchants Association or somebody like that organizing something where everyone who wants to “play” stops at a sponsoring merchant to get a playing card, like a bingo card. You get a stamp in your card from each merchant you visit, include the Supervalu and Safeway Malls. Whoever fills their card first gets a meal from a sponsoring restaurant, and anyone who’s card is full can exchange it for a movie ticket… Convince the few holdouts on Main Street to do the Friday night late opening, this could be a very inexpensive thing for the sponsors, and a way to increase foot traffic a lot. Just some brainstorming ideas… kick it around. And perhaps a different theme each Friday night, a great way to beat the winter doldrums – both from a retail point of view, and from a social point of view. Start in the middle of January, when people are bored silly. Kick it off with a hockey theme, everyone wears a hockey jersey the first night, characters from Sesame Street the second Friday… Make the downtown core a fun, exciting place on Friday nights. That spills over into Saturday retail, too, people see things that make them want to come back on Saturday. I just think it is sad and pathetic to drive down Main Street on a Friday night, and see half of the stores closed, and no traffic whatsoever.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 08:03:20 +0000
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