Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Members of the Pulaski Business Alliance discussed some of the possibilities Tuesday at a breakfast meeting in The Renaissance.
Ideas to entice customers included drawings for gift certificates and trips to places such as Dollywood, Opryland or Myrtle Beach.
Customers buying a certain amount of merchandise from participating businesses would get a ticket making them eligible for a drawing.
Pat Gooch of The Casimir Company, Ann Wallace of Wallace's clothing store, Paul Etzel of The Renaissance and Michael Dowell, executive director of the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley will be the Main Street representatives who will get prices on the possible prizes and report back to the Alliance next month.
The next meeting of the Alliance will be at 8:30 a.m. April 11 at The Renaissance.
Another matter to be settled is whether to concentrate advertising in Pulaski County or more distant locations.
Many new stores have opened in downtown Pulaski during the past two years when the town's Main Street program, under Roscoe Cox, became more aggressive in recruiting them. Some cater to area residents while others find that most of their customers are from more distant locations.
Marlis Flynn of Upstairs/Downstairs and Debbie Jonas of Colony of Virginia, for example, reported a good contingent of Roanoke customers. But Etzel cautioned that tourism can be seasonal.
``The out-of-town people are not going to come all year around,'' he said, so local customers are needed as well.
Some business people have been surprised to find that Pulaski County customers who had not shopped downtown in a long time were unaware of the new stores that have opened.
They also have encountered customers who were reluctant to shop downtown because of a perceived lack of parking space.
Main Street can fill up fast on a busy day, but Gooch said mall shoppers will usually walk just as far from their parking lot space to the mall as a typical Pulaski shopper who might have to park around the corner.
The merchants plan to show locations of nearby public parking lots when they distribute new brochures on downtown Pulaski attractions.
by CNB