When downtown areas in small WNC communities host festivals and events, local retail businesses benefit, according to the Marion Business Association’s Executive Director Freddie Killough. 

During 2020, the Marion Business Association felt the need to uncover creative ways to encourage shoppers to support their local businesses. With the need to maintain social distancing guidelines during the pandemic, setting up outdoor events for small retailers was an idea that kept people safe while helping boost retail traffic. The association began a Shop Small Saturday event which attracts people downtown while providing an opportunity for home-based businesses to sell items to the public.

“It adds a festive air when vendors are on the street, and attracts people to stop and come into the stores,” Killough said. “It’s been very well received and very well supported, and vendors look forward to it every year.”

By allotting sidewalk space for vendors, drivers are still able to use the streets, which Killough said invites even more people to participate by not “closing people out.” Shoppers have enough space to peruse sidewalk vendors, and are close enough to storefronts to easily meander in and out of shops.

Inviting crowds downtown not only brings more shoppers into stores during the event itself, it also adds awareness of the businesses located downtown. By familiarizing themselves with downtown stores, locals learn what types of items they can find and where, and are more likely to revisit those stores during other times of the year.

Local retailers often cater to the types of visitors the town receives. With a large campground presence in McDowell County, drawing campers is important to the success of Marion retail stores. Members of the Business Association bring a calendar of events to the campgrounds at the beginning of the season, making sure campers are aware of the activities happening in the area with the intention of attracting them downtown.

“Our retailers try to be prepared to service that demographic,” Killough said. “Not all of them carry products specific to the needs of campers, but we’ve noticed these visitors enjoy the ‘mom and pop’ stores because they are all a little different. This population adds to the number of people coming into the stores, and really helps keep those businesses viable.”

In addition to Shop Small Saturday, other events include a downtown yard sale, Bigfoot Festival, Livermush Festival, Culturas Unidas Festival, and craft fairs. Many of these events are promoted to areas south and east of McDowell County, as Killbough said those markets are often easily encouraged to drive up to the mountains, and all of these events provide a boost for local retailers. 

Resources for local retailers are offered through the North Carolina Main Street program, which is a program of the Department of Commerce. With this affiliation, networking, resources, and support services are available for the town. A Main Street conference is held each March, they have performed a retail analysis for the town, and the program assists with appropriate design decisions for historical structures. Educational seminars are offered and occasional rural development grants become available.

Main Street America is another program offering similar support for local businesses. Other WNC towns with this designation include Murphy, Silva, Waynesville, Tryon, Spruce Pine, and Hendersonville. The towns participate in networking, share resources, and help each other when similar issues are experienced.

“It was at a national Main Street conference that we learned about another community hosting a program to encourage entrepreneurship,” Killough said. “We worked with them to develop our Growing Entrepreneurs program. We knew we wanted entrepreneurs who were committed to their retail businesses, and this program has earned some state awards and recognition. That’s probably been the most impactful in our community.”

Since 2016, more than 200 individuals have participated in the Growing Entrepreneurs program, which operates in partnership with the Small Business Center at McDowell Technical Community College. Classes are held at least twice yearly, and entrepreneurs are incentivized to open retail, restaurant, or entertainment businesses in the City of Marion.

“It has brought people to the table that were seriously looking at opening these types of businesses,” Killough said. “We are also strategic in that we want to fund the things that put feet on the street and people in stores. It helps establish and strengthen those retail businesses; those things visitors are looking for. Like much of Western North Carolina, we're seeing the impact of the growing visitors, the outdoor recreation folks who are coming in to enjoy all of the outdoor activities. In the evenings, they like to come into town for some food and beverages, and do a little shopping. We are trying to fill that niche.”