Aug 22
Retail personality profile
Posted by AG under: Downtown; Economic development .
Blount Hunter is an analyst, a numbers guy who understands the realities that generate the statistics. Downtown Greensboro, Inc., hired him to examine retailing and the use of space in general in the Center City. It’s a job he has done for many cities across the nation. His Greensboro report will be released today.
Springboard spoke with Hunter the other day and asked if downtown Greensboro is on the right path. He found much to like, he said, and some situations that — in his informed opinion — need to be addressed if downtown retailing is to move to the next level.
His analysis found several “great retailers,” which he defined as businesses that operate on several fronts. These retailers are businesses that offer products not generally available elsewhere in the city; and they are products that prompt casual or impulse purchases by visitors whose primary mission downtown is to dine, visit galleries, clubs or the theater.
These businesses, Blount said, have a “certain amount of stability, either because they have an Internet presence, or because they have a wholesale business, and they are covering a lot of their costs by that side of their business. But they want to have a front door, and a presence on Elm Street.
“I find that that’s typical in a lot of main street settings, that a merchant has a retail business and a wholesale business or a catalog business or an an Internet business out the back door. That’s really very smart.”
With multiple revenue streams, the pressure of relying on retail sales alone is much less intense.
Hunter believes that a successful downtown develops its own personality; that means it isn’t populated with cookie-cutter retailers who have stores in virtually every shopping center or metro downtown. In other words, entrepreneurs will define Greensboro’s downtown.
“Downtown Greensboro is the optimum place for Greensboro to be itself and to show the world what it’s all about,” Hunter said. “In those beautiful historic buildings, and in that cluster along Elm Street, this is the place for Greensboro to demonstrate its own unique personality.”
Here’s the News & Record’s story.
One Comment so far...
SuePolinsky Says:
22 August 2008 at 12:39 pm.
Does DGI or the Chamber (or anyone) have classes or sessions for retailers who might be considering downtown? (I think they used to; not sure if they still do; and a schedule would be a great asset.) Perhaps you could post such a resource here?
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