Downtown Whiteville is about to get busier than a pecan pie table at Thanksgiving.
Starting Friday, Nov. 6 with the Pecan Prelude, followed by the Veterans Celebration Parade and the NC Pecan Festival, then Pass the Pink, Plaid & Pastries, Shop Our Stores and ending with the Christmas Extravaganza on Saturday, Dec. 5. We are staring at weeks of people, events, shopping, food, music and foot traffic rolling through downtown.
So, what are we going to do with all these people once we get them here? Because a packed downtown looks good in pictures.
A packed downtown that sends customers through local business doors? That’s economic development.
Now, before anyone’s eyes glaze over because I used two words that normally come with a PowerPoint deck, a committee meeting and somebody saying “stakeholder engagement,” hear me out.
I’m talking about people.
People walking down Madison Street, eating lunch, buying something from a downtown shop and discovering a business they didn’t know existed. People saying, “You know, we ought to come back here.”
There was a time when you didn’t need a special event to get people downtown. Back in the day, people cruised downtown. It wasn’t merely a destination; it was where you went.
Times changed. Shopping habits changed. Roads changed. Businesses moved outward, and people got used to driving past downtown instead of going through it. So today, we must work a little harder to give people a reason to return.
Fortunately, over the next several weeks, downtown Whiteville has opportunity after opportunity to do exactly that.
The Pecan Prelude kicks things off. The Veterans Celebration brings families, veterans and community groups downtown. The N.C. Pecan Music Festival fills the streets with music, vendors, food and entertainment, all during that first weekend in November.
Then our downtown shopping promotions pick up the baton, with help from the Columbus County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, the Columbus County Arts Council, and Downtown Whiteville.
Pass the Pink on Friday, Nov. 20, gets people walking from business to business, collecting stamps, seeing butterflies and discovering local art they may never have known was there.
Then comes Plaid and Pastries on Friday, Nov. 27. I don’t know who decided shopping improves when you add baked goods, but that person deserves some recognition. Throw on some plaid, grab your shopping bag, stroll downtown, eat something sweet and turn Christmas shopping into an afternoon instead of another chore on the list.
Next up is Shop Our Stores on Saturday, Nov. 28, where participating businesses get another chance to show people what they do and give visitors a reason to stop, browse, sample, shop or simply step inside. That is exactly the point. Every open door is a chance for somebody to discover something new.
And then comes Saturday, Dec. 5, when the Christmas Parade and Christmas Extravaganza bring another wave of people, lights, shopping and holiday energy downtown.
Look at the progression. Start with the Pecan Festival, return for Pass the Pink, stroll back downtown for Plaid & Pastries, shop local during Shop Our Stores, and wrap it all up with Christmas. That is how a one-time event visitor becomes a regular downtown customer.
The real question is what happens after people arrive. Do they step into the shops, discover a business, grab a bite to eat or leave with a reason to visit again? Are downtown businesses helping send customers to one another, or are we simply counting how many people showed up? Because if thousands of people come downtown, take a few pictures, buy a funnel cake and head home, we had a successful event.
If they also shop, eat, explore and remember downtown Whiteville the next time they are ready to spend again, that is when the event starts becoming economic activity.
Festivals absolutely need vendors, food trucks, entertainment and attractions. Those things help draw the crowd. Our brick-and-mortar businesses need to be part of that economy too, not spectators watching potential customers stroll past the windows.
Put something outside, offer a sample, run a special, hand someone a coupon that brings them back next month. Partner with another business. Tell your customers where they ought to stop next.
This is why Pass the Pink, Plaid and Pastries and Shop Our Stores matter. They are not competing with the larger festivals. They extend them. They give visitors another reason to return and remind people that downtown Whiteville isn’t something that suddenly appears when someone closes the street and sets up a stage. Businesses are here all year. And so are the people investing their money, time and occasionally their last functioning nerve into them.
Economic development isn’t just landing the next big employer. It’s also about helping businesses already here sell another meal, haircut, shirt, steak or Christmas gift. Those transactions add up. So do the impressions.
I think we sometimes get economic development backward. We think the event itself is economic development. It isn’t. The event is the invitation. What happens after people arrive is the economic development. Eventually, downtown isn’t someplace they visit because there is an event. It becomes someplace they simply go. Which, come to think of it, sounds an awful lot like what cruising downtown used to accomplish.
Maybe we are not trying to recreate the past after all. Maybe we are trying to recreate the habit.
Let’s celebrate the Pecan Prelude, line the street for our veterans and pack downtown for the Pecan Festival. Let’s Pass the Pink, put on the plaid and eat the pastries, Shop Our Stores and fill downtown again at Christmas. The crowds are coming. The economic-development part is giving them a reason to return.
Of course, a few signs out on J.K. Powell Boulevard pointing people toward downtown certainly wouldn’t hurt. That, my friends, is another quarter.
That’s my quarter’s worth. See you on the flip side.
Patty Nieman is a business & property owner in Columbus County
