Easy EvenIng Events

Looking for a new promotion for your store as part of your shopping district or town?  For the price of some wine and cheese, as well as a bit of promotion, you can easily stage an evening event that will hopefully bring shoppers in after hours.

This concept is usually applied to a Gallery Night, a promotion so popular that some communities hold one once a month.  In Brattleboro, Vermont, for example, the Gallery Walk is “year-round, festival First Friday stroll in downtown Brattleboro and nearby locations.” There are almost 40 participating businesses listed on their web site, each one offering a special exhibit (most of which are ongoing throughout the rest of the month).  Brattleboro even publishes a Gallery Walk Guide with paid advertising.

On the other coast, LA offers an Art Walk in downtown Los Angeles (in the photo accompanying this blog) that features an Art Walk Lounge where visitors can relax and pick up a map of participating businesses. Theater groups participate in this event as well, and there is also live music on the street. Charleston also features an Art Walk, and their Thursday event is now in its 10th year.

The concept of being open late, and attracting shoppers to come browse and dine in your community, should not be limited to areas with a lot of galleries.  Any shop can add live music, refreshments or a special exhibit of merchandise. If several do it at once, you have an event!

In Melrose, Australia the community stages a monthly Melrose Night with lots of added food vendors (in addition to their restaurants) and one-night only discounts that are listed on their web site. The food is undoubtedly a big draw, but the crowd goes into the shops as well.

Don’t forget that having a charity tie-in works well to help bring people out. The Gallery Night in our area, for example, supports the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.  You could easily work with any nonprofit with wide support to promote an evening event in exchange for a small percentage of sales, or an outright donation.

A group of students from Edgewood College, which is just down the street from us, is joining forces with Dane Buy Local to put together a Solstice Stroll to bring shoppers out on the longest day of the year.  Both the retail stores and the restaurants in our area will participate in this event, which is mostly be promoted inexpensively through e-mail blasts and social media.

We look forward to the attention that the Solstice Event will focus on the Monroe Street shopping area, and hope to see lots of customers out enjoying the evening while supporting local businesses.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder