
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 3, 1994                   TAG: 9405030127
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN                                LENGTH: Short

MERCHANTS TRYING TO MAKE THE BEST OF IT

John Zienius said he almost felt like hugging somebody over the weekend when two customers walked across Memorial Bridge and bought refrigerators at his Big Z store in the Radford Shopping Plaza. Zienius and other Fairlawn merchants met Monday morning to map plans to get others to follow in his customers' footsteps.

"There's a point when you stop feeling sorry for yourself and start trying to do something," he said of the promotional plans. "We're having some fun with it."

Promotions will include a $500 shopping spree as well as merchandise giveaways to attract customers to the area, cut off from Radford in the wake of the April 21 bridge closing.

The merchants will join forces to buy newspaper, radio and TV ads.

Two radio stations are planning remote broadcasts.

Radford Shopping Plaza merchants had a better weekend, Kmart manager Chris Miear reported. "I think people were a little bit shocked at first," he said of the closing. Now, he said, people have begun to get used to the idea. "It's a bit of a novelty to walk from Radford over to here."

Having answers to their initial questions about the bridge's future also helped, he said. "At least it's not going to be two or three months."

by CNB