Adams COUNTY
A group of downtown Hanover merchants has begun developing promotions to take advantage of the surge in activity from Main Street events in the community.
Events under the Saturdays on Main Street moniker - which itself began among small-business leaders in the community - started in May with the Chalk It Up Hanover street art festival.
The events have continued to attract people to the downtown as part of a wider, grassroots community development initiative.
Now, some of the attention is shifting to encouraging attendees to spend their money at area shops - some of which have either opened or have moved into the heart of downtown in the past year or so.
The Hanover area's shopping options are not limited to the growing, high-profile cluster of big-box retailers on nearby Eisenhower Drive, said Heather Lunn, co-owner of The Sheppard Mansion and Carriage House Market.
There are more than 30 shops of one form or another in downtown - more than many people might realize - and it is important for them to work together for success, she said.
"It's not just being downtown; it's shopping in (the stores) as well," she said.
The first promotion planned after the merchant group's initial meeting in October was designed to encourage people who come to the borough's holiday parade and related festivities just after Thanksgiving to shop at multiple downtown stores, Lunn said.
Anyone shopping at one business could take his or her receipt to another downtown establishment and receive a discount or other giveaway, she said. The Carriage House offered a 20 percent discount on items in the market, for example, Lunn said.
The promotion ran the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving in tandem with the borough's holiday happenings, Lunn said. It also is planned for today and Saturday.
About 90 percent of the merchants contacted about the promotion agreed to participate after Thanksgiving, and most of the rest usually aren't open for Black Friday in the first place, she said.
The promotion and shopping activity went well, though some people hit the big-box retailers early and were shopped out by the time they got to the downtown stores, Lunn said.
Helping to encourage people to spend money locally is an outgrowth of the philosophy of the Carriage House Market, which began in 2010 as an outlet for locally grown food and Pennsylvanian- crafted gifts, Lunn said.
The Sheppard Mansion began first as the answer to what the family could make out of the family home of Lunn's great grandparents instead of selling it more than 10 years ago.
It started as a bed-and-breakfast, and in 2005 the owners added a restaurant that is focused to the "point of obsession" on serving local fare, he said.
It especially is important in a poor economy for people to spend their money locally and help their neighbors, Lunn said.
Downtown foot traffic is part of what Taryn Gerrick said encouraged her to move the pet store she owns with her fianc� into downtown about four months ago.
Jocelyn's Puppies & Pet Supplies, which was named for her fianc�'s daughter, opened on York Street more than two years ago out of a love they have for pets, Gerrick said.
The new site on Carlisle Street offers a bigger store in what she called a well-known area of Hanover, and the business is doing well since the move, she said.
Helping more people become aware of all of the downtown business offerings underpinned the formation of the Saturdays on Main Street committee from a previous business group that formed about a year ago.
Efforts continue with Black Friday-related events that included a scramble in which participants received a list of clues for things they had to find downtown, said Pam Brown, chairwoman of the Saturdays on Main Street committee.
Brown, who also owns the borough's On The Go Caf� & Catering Co., said the community is usually packed with people for holiday festivities each year, but they leave too quickly.
Merchants joke that they should put up barricades to help keep them in town, so the cross-promotion with area businesses is a great addition to the downtown promotional efforts, she said.
"We all have customer base, but they tend not to go to the next store," Brown said.
[Sidebar]
"We all have customer base, but they tend not to go to the next store."
Pam Brown, On The Go Caf� & Catering Co.
[Author Affiliation]
By Brent Burkey
brentb@journalpub.com
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