Next week, 650-plus small businesses in the metro area will launch an experiment that, as far as any of them knows, has never been tried before.
Instead of competing with one another, they’ll be conducting joint marketing and advertising.
If that sounds counterintuitive to sound business practices, the merchants insist it’s not.
Each of them is located in one of four historic shopping districts in the metro area: Olde Town Arvada, Littleton’s Historic Main Street, Old South Pearl Street and Old South Gaylord Street. After a year of discussion and planning, merchants’ associations in the four areas have incorporated as the Original Shopping Districts Network, sharing problems, ideas and advertising, and marketing resources.
The experiment is the brainchild of Littleton business owner Ruth Graham and Chris Gibbons, the city’s director of economic development. Gibbons says each of the shopping areas began in a central core, and towns then grew up around them. The historic shopping districts represent a “feeling of where we started, what our heartbeat was, where we came from,” he says.
The districts are made up almost completely of small, independent merchants offering a personal touch for patrons and what merchants describe as an “authentic shopping experience.” “We have a niche market that certain kinds of shoppers like. We offer customized services and products you can’t find at the mall,” Graham says. “We know most of our customers by name. They like it here and bring their families here to shop.”
Part of what makes the shopping experience special in the historic areas is the unique shops owned by independent merchants. But those independent merchants are also part of the districts’ dilemma. The merchants are small. And being small, each merchant alone has lacked funds to advertise across the metro area.
“We saw that all the historic shopping areas were having the same trouble letting people know we’re here and what we have available,” Graham says. “People think we compete with each other, but we don’t. We compete with the big shopping malls,” she adds, so it “seemed to make sense” to advertise together.
The city of Littleton underwrote the effort by contributing $5,000 to help the new organization hire a marketing specialist, and merchants in the other districts contributed a similar amount. The Originals, as they call themselves, plan a marketing campaign that will include a new logo, maps, brochures, a website and joint sales. Working together, the merchants will sponsor special events and may even be able to bring in some “big name” entertainment, according to Lori Drienka, a merchant in Arvada.
She says there are pluses to the new coalition beyond just the joint marketing. “There’s an incredible sense of positive energy when we’re sharing solutions and working together for the common good,” she says.
Those involved are optimistic that their experiment will work. Drienka predicts that business will “explode” with the launch of the new coalition. “I’m telling our merchants, ‘Brace yourselves. This is going to be huge!”‘
There is irony in watching as the developers of New Urbanist communities attempt to create artificially what the four Originals have naturally: a historic flavor, a pedestrian scale, specialty shops, a lively nightlife, and strong street life that includes outdoor restaurants and places for people to gather.
Certainly, New Urbanist developments, shopping malls and “big boxes” have their place in today’s economy. But it’s also important to keep historic shopping centers alive and healthy. They are important to our sense of community, our sense of place, our sense of history. They offer an important sense of belonging that many people living in this sprawling metro area are hungry for.
Let’s all help these visionary merchants celebrate their bold experiment in mutual cooperation. Come on down when the Originals launch “red carpet” events in each of the shopping districts next week. Plan to join the fun starting at 8 a.m. on Feb. 7 on Historic Main Street in Littleton; 8 a.m. on Feb. 13 in Historic Olde Town Arvada; 9 a.m. on Feb. 20 on Old South Gaylord Street; and 9 a.m. on Feb. 21 on South Pearl Street.
