...at least about downtown Carbondale becoming an entertainment district. Took a walk through downtown last week and saw at least three new businesses ( Evelyn's Restaurant, Kelly's Irish Boxy House, and the unnamed rumored micorbrewery), the new location of Cristado's and one expansion (Mary Lou's) going int. All food related. Almost all the store fronts that have opened in the area in the past year, with the exceptions of Sew A Lot and Esther's Clothing, have been entrainment/food oriented ( various tattoo parlors and spas, Practice Pad, Crossfit Gym, La Unica Bakery).
Most of these serve as entertainment for their customers. they come in, eat, get a tattoo, work out, then leave. They don't promote shopping by their customers, nor do their customers have a reason to move from one location to the other. The places where customers can buy "things" are quite limited, most of what you buy in downtown Carbondale are services. Generally, once the customer purchases the service, they leave downtown or, in the case of the bars, move onto another one.
Even in the case of purchasing things, there is no inducement to convince customers to remain downtown to shop as most of the stores, the bike shops excepted, are dissimilar from one another. A customer at Priority Sports is not likely to move on to Sound Core to shop nor will a purchaser at Old Town Liquors move on to Univeristees. There are no clusters of similar stores, or "strings' as they are called, save for the group of bike shops, spas, bars and restaurants, ergo no reason for customers to engage in the traditional shopping behavior of moving from store to store,looking for the perfect, or at least satisfactory, product. People come downtown for entertainment and find it in the form of bar and restaurants (and the Varsity). The question is, does Carbondale accept that it does not have a viable shopping district for a downtown but does have a lively entertainment district or does it put in the extensive (and expensive) work needed to change this.
Most of these serve as entertainment for their customers. they come in, eat, get a tattoo, work out, then leave. They don't promote shopping by their customers, nor do their customers have a reason to move from one location to the other. The places where customers can buy "things" are quite limited, most of what you buy in downtown Carbondale are services. Generally, once the customer purchases the service, they leave downtown or, in the case of the bars, move onto another one.
Even in the case of purchasing things, there is no inducement to convince customers to remain downtown to shop as most of the stores, the bike shops excepted, are dissimilar from one another. A customer at Priority Sports is not likely to move on to Sound Core to shop nor will a purchaser at Old Town Liquors move on to Univeristees. There are no clusters of similar stores, or "strings' as they are called, save for the group of bike shops, spas, bars and restaurants, ergo no reason for customers to engage in the traditional shopping behavior of moving from store to store,looking for the perfect, or at least satisfactory, product. People come downtown for entertainment and find it in the form of bar and restaurants (and the Varsity). The question is, does Carbondale accept that it does not have a viable shopping district for a downtown but does have a lively entertainment district or does it put in the extensive (and expensive) work needed to change this.
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