By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
These have been hard times for downtown business proprietors.
Torn up streets have discouraged many people from going downtown, and if they did one they found many of their favorite parking spaces unavailable. Water line breaks and gas leaks led to unexpected closings.
Even Firefly Nights, a festival created to encourage people to explore the downtown, got pushed over a block because of the road and utility work, away from merchants and restaurants it was intended to boost.
Stacie Banfield, the owner of Mode Elle on the Four Corners downtown and one of the founders of Firefly Nights, said that with “construction taking place simultaneously in the entire city, it made people want to divert from Bowling Green.”
She’s concerned about customers returning. “When people do make changes, they decide this will be the new norm. I hope construction ends soon so we can get back to supporting downtown.”
Now with a layer of asphalt down and the roads lined, a sense of normalcy seems just around the corner.
Downtown Bowling Green is teaming up with its other partners in the Four Corner Center to try to bring that business back.
At a recent retail merchants update, hosted by the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, Tony Vetter, the executive director of Downtown BG, addressed what plans are being put in place to spur that downtown revival. An interest-free loan program has already through the Bowling Green BG Economic Development office. (http://bgindependentmedia.org/loans-offered-to-help-businesses-hurt-by-prolonged-construction/)
Downtown BG is putting the finishing touches on a coupon book offering customers savings.
Floyd Craft, owner of Ace Hardware, Ben’s, and several other properties downtown, advised his fellow merchants that coupon discounts should be “sharp.” Last year he offered 30 percent off.
Vetter said he hoped to have coupon books out in time for the Black Swamp Arts Festival, Sept. 7-9, and for the Firefly Nights Fall Festival, Oct. 18.
Downtown BG will be using the “Think BG” brand developed by the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The theme will be Think Local: Shop, Dine, and Explore.
The “explore” part, Craft said, especially applies to Bowling Green State University students.
Vetter agreed. When students head downtown on Wooster Street, they turn right toward the bars. They need to be encouraged to turn left sometimes.
Mary Hinkelman, the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber will be hosting a workshop on using digital resources to promote business that was arranged through Bob Bortel, the director of Falcon Media on campus.
Hinkelman said that marketing students are also interested in working with local business.
The major national push to promote local business is Shop Small Day, held the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sponsored by American Express, Shop Small has become something of a monster, focusing so much energy on that day, Vetter said.
The timing, he said, especially for local merchants, is not great. It comes the day after “Black Friday” and right before “Cyber Monday.”
And it falls on the Ohio-Michigan game day.
Still it has created a buzz, and there is a lesser known year-round component that he encouraged merchants to participate in.
He also urged merchants to take advantage of Trip Advisor. The travel site isn’t just for hotels and restaurants. Locally the Wood County Historical Museum and Snook’s Dream Cars make great use of the site, Vetter said. They are classified as attractions, but so are many shops, he said.
He pointed to Finders. Few such independent record stores still exist, he said.
Hinkelman also pointed to Busy Thimble, the quilt and fabric shop connected to Ben’s.
“We have destinations,” Vetter said.
“We have niche shops,” Hinkelman said.
Now they need shoppers.
“As we’re getting finished up (with the construction),” Hinkelman said, “we want to welcome people back to the downtown and make it worth their while and tell them why they need to come here.”
