In response to the most recent town council decision regarding the Market to Main event I would like to make a statement.
It’s not very often town council asks the downtown businesses for their opinion or input on any matters downtown so of course when we all received the letter we stated our opinions. I’m very disappointed to hear that someone used foul language but this should not reflect on ALL downtown businesses.
Whenever there is any road closure or roadwork in the downtown it affects our businesses. Parking is another big issue. People will drive around the block numerous times just to find a convenient parking spot as many do not wish to use the free parking at Glasgow Square due to the walk.
We are all just trying to put food on the table and in the past the downtown businesses tried to include the Market in different events as well as cross marketing for each other however the Market was not interested and I’m sure this has also influenced some downtown businesses in their letters stating they were not in agreement with closing the street on a busy Saturday in August.
Where my business is located it would clearly only affect a couple hours of my business that day but like I said we are trying to put food on the table. Further up the street where the market wanted to close off there would be many more businesses affected and I stand behind my fellow business owners as many of us are small businesses trying to survive.
Some people are saying the event will bring customers to the downtown. In my experience no it would not. No parking available
We all help each other out and if I personally don’t have an item a customer is looking for I will call other businesses downtown and the other businesses to the same. And yes that goes for the market as well. I have friends who are vendors at the Market and I send customers to the Market if I don’t have what they are looking for.
In my opinion I think town council handled this situation very poorly. Council has the feedback they were requesting from the downtown businesses and clearly it wasn’t all positive feedback BUT it was town council who cancelled the Market to Main event. So why didn’t council go back to the business owners to see if we could all compromise? Perhaps the event could have been bumped up to 5 or 6pm when most businesses are closed? Perhaps town council could have arranged a meeting with market management, business owners as well as council? No they decided to cancel event and divide the people which has resulted in bullying and threats.
We CAN all work so that it works for everyone.
Respectfully,
Lori Sutherland
Naturally Bare
