What would lure you downtown?
In case you slept in, here's one reporter's account of the NDDC monthly Tuesday morning forum that took place at 8 a.m. today.
The usual players once again dragged the dead horse out of the Archer House storage space and into the middle of the room...No they didn't beat it. They didn't even get that far. They just spent two hours talking about how to beat it. (That's Norm Butler, above, trying to move things along.)
I'm sorry, but after a year listening to minor variations of the same discussion, I don't have anything new to report. If you insist, do a search and click through all the earlier stories on why people don't shop downtown, and what the city/state/chamber/retailing fairy godmother can do to help the struggling business owners and building owners.
Happily, Joe Grundhoefer stood up and said that he'd had his best year ever at J. Grundy's Rueb 'N' Stein. No one asked how he did it, they just moved back to discussing what's wrong. But after the meeting, I asked, and he had a great answer -- and it isn't very complicated.
"I listened to my customers," he said. Joe explained how he had his staff talk to customers about what they wanted. He talked to people. He added more happy hour promotions and specials. He added TV screens, and this week he popped for some snappy new 42-inch LCD screens so the athletes will look so real you'd swear the losing teams will be crying in your beer with you.
Sure, these aren't groundbreaking ideas, but they worked. He also uses the welcome services for new residents, and he's looking for ways to reach people coming to town for events.
That brings up a point...Event planners have lists of people attending, so why not invite them to have a drink or dinner while they're here for a bike race or conference?
A few people in the room seemed ready to work together to ask people what they want...so let's help them along.
What would make you come downtown, or come downtown more often? What drives you crazy and keeps you from coming downtown?
You can leave a comment here, or get a discussion going in our forums. If you want to meet and get working on how get people downtown, say so and I'll set up a meeting.
Let's see if we can come up with some new ideas for the new year. And leave the dead horses in peace.
Thanks for the report!
Anne - Thanks for presenting your take on the presentation. Since I don't work in town I can't really make those workday morning seminars and I have to rely on secondhand info. I really like your focus on how Joe G. has found success by listening to his customers - what a novel idea! It brings to mind some great comments that Bright Spencer made (here and here) in a lengthy discussion thread attached to a Locally Grown story a few days ago.
Doug
Downtown
This is a great post. I'll have to follow some of the links to read the backstory. We've only been here a year, but the members of my family go downtown at least as often as we go out to the establishments along the highway. We especially frequent the library, the Cocoa Bean, Hogan Bros., and Goodbye Blue Monday. We've certainly never turned away owing to a lack of parking or some other infrastructural reason. That said, there are a few things we'd sure like to see: more easy-in-and-out restaurants (like Hogan Bros. or the late, great Las Delicias), more seating at Blue Monday, and more pedestrian-friendly crosswalks and sidewalks. Those minor quibbles aside, the character of the downtown businesses and the charm of the district in general make it our favorite destination in town.
Christopher Tassava