Jul. 22—With the extreme rise in sales on July 1, the Clinton Main Street Program is looking to make the Ol' Lightnin' Rods Club parade through downtown an annual one. The group is also working to find more ways to infuse cash flow into local businesses in Clinton as the number of businesses increase.
Moving the activities of July 4 to the Saturday before the holiday and incorporating the downtown parade of vintage cars, July 1 was an extremely positive day in the eyes of the business owners as well as the event planners.
"We love being able to track how our businesses do based on our initiatives. It helps us to know what works and what doesn't so we can always be improving," said Mary Rose, Clinton Main Street program director.
Rose and other program members hope to make the parade on the Saturday on or before the 4th of July weekend, an annual event based on that ability to track how well local businesses are doing on Main Street. Rose reported having business owners reaching out to express the degree of success experienced on that Saturday morning of July 1.
Deborah Thompson, owner of small business Simply NC, a Clinton favorite for coffee and conversation, was delighted with the environment that day. She said the atmosphere manifested itself by simply having city and county residents, and some visitors, descending on Main Street and visiting establishments they might not have previously checked out.
"There was a much better turnout than I expected that Saturday, which was great to see," Thompson said.
She is not the only one to agree with the success and general experience of having such a crowd moving about downtown, shopping, and looking around within local businesses.
In fact, the books of the business Remedy by Jess show they had an increase of 60% in sales compared to the Saturday before the 4th of July last year.
"We had a lot of traffic we normally wouldn't have, as those attending the parade would come in for the air conditioning and wind up spending time looking around at our products," said Jess Bashlor, owner of Remedy by Jess.
"There were so many people that wouldn't normally be downtown, but while downtown, seemed to think it was worth just stopping in," Bashlor stressed.
Jess's husband, Wally, who also serves as the store's business manager, shared that the difference between having an event that provides exposure for the entire Main Street in Clinton compared to the limited success with attempts by individual businesses to have events that attract large numbers was noticeable.