Black Friday love for downtown Pensacola
- November 26, 2014
- / Carlton Proctor
- / community-dashboard
With Black Friday just around the corner, downtown Pensacola jeweler Bob Meadows is getting ready for the biggest shopping day of the year in his own way.
Over his many years as a merchant on Palafox Place, he's developed his own retail strategy to deal with the shopping frenzy that attracts thousands to Pensacola's malls and big box stores.
"We close for it; that's what we do special for Black Friday,” Meadows said. "Everybody is going to be lined up in front of Best Buy and Walmart.
"We've got our little niche, and Black Friday is not it.”
In contrast to Meadows why-fight-it approach, this Friday will be another day at the office for Patrick Elebash of Elebash Jewelry.
"Our appeal for shopping downtown is that we're not the place with the lines around the block,” Elebash said. "And one of the great benefits of shopping downtown is that there are so many more retailers downtown today than in the recent past."
What's driving this proliferation of downtown retailers is a simple, but powerful dynamic of commerce: More retailers attract more shoppers, and more shoppers attracts more retailers.
No downtown retailer better illustrates this effect than Yvette Crooke-Avera's Belle Ame Bath and Body, which has been in business at 112 Palafox Place since 2011.
Like Elebash, Crooke-Avera is treating Black Friday as just another shopping day. She doesn't need a huge one-day bump in sales to get her holiday shopping season off to a strong start.
Crooke-Avera has a unique draw for her shop: She hand-makes all her bath and body products in the store from raw materials for her customers. She says the growth of the downtown retail landscape is fueling a lot of her growth.
"I have a ton of regular customers who come to my store," she said. "And throughout the year I have a lot of traffic from tourists who visit here regularly. In the three years since I've been at this location I've seen the foot traffic on Palafox Place triple."
Shops like Belle Ame, and clothing stores such as Don Alan and Scout are among those retailers contributing to the increase in shoppers.
"We're seeing a lot more foot traffic here in my store now because I've got more businesses around me," Alan said. "I get a lot of business from customers who own second homes here in the area as well."
Alan's only nod to Black Friday and the ensuing holiday shopping season is gift cards he sends to his customers.
Julia Ussery's Scout, a women's clothing store next door to Don Alan, is keeping normal business hours Friday, but launching a 30 percent off sale on its merchandise.
The SoGo boost
This latest rejuvenation of retailers in downtown Pensacola has been driven, in large part, by a substantial capital investment in the downtown area over the past four years by such developers as Quint and Rishy Studer and banker Bill Woodbury, who was the driving force behind the construction of a new Bank of Pensacola headquarters building at Palafox and Main streets.
In addition to the Bodacious Olive and So Gourmet Kitchenry store run by Rishy Studer, the couple purchased The Artisan (formerly the Penko Building) in February 2012.
Their multimillion dollar remodeling of the 23,000 square foot, century-old building, created street-level space for several retailers, including Between, a women's clothing store, and Susan Campbell Jewelry.
Keeping this robust growth in retailers going is at the core of a "shop local" strategy being put together for the holiday season by the Downtown Improvement Board.
[caption id="attachment_11297" align="alignright" width="300"]
Susan Campbell arranges jewelry in her store off Palafox. Downtown Improvement Board member Campbell is working with the Birdwell Agency to launch a campaign for the holiday season to attract shoppers to downtown Pensacola, and get them to spend their money with local retailers. Michael Spooneybarger/ Pensacola Today[/caption]
DIB board member Campbell is working with the Birdwell Agency to launch a campaign for the holiday season to attract shoppers to downtown Pensacola, and get them to spend their money with locally based retailers.
"The DIB is working on a downtown Pensacola holiday shopping campaign that we hope will spread across the entire central Gulf Coast," Campbell said. "We haven't ironed out all the details yet, but we're hoping to launch the campaign this week.”
Partnering with Jane Birdwell, owner of the Birdwell Agency, Campbell said the shop downtown Pensacola campaign will be centered on a $1,000 cash giveaway awarded during the Dec. 19 Gallery Night event.
"In the past we've tried to promote downtown on TV, but it has not been that effective," she said. "People don't watch cable TV as much. So, now we're doing more social media marketing."
1,000 things to do
Campbell said the new campaign, dubbed "A Thousand Things to do in Downtown Pensacola, will ask participants to describe how or where they would spend $1,000 in the downtown retail area if awarded the money.
"Over the course of the campaign we will be highlighting 1,000 things people can do in downtown Pensacola," Birdwell said. "We're inviting people to share their thoughts and suggestions over social media like Twitter, Facebook and tell us what they love about downtown."
Campbell and Birdwell believe this new marketing campaign for retailers will become a model for future campaigns promoting a "buy local" strategy for downtown Pensacola.
It's also designed to get more people to shop at the ever-increasing number of retail stores popping up in the downtown core.
Birdwell said a recent survey showed that some 40 percent of Escambia County residents had never visited downtown Pensacola.
"That's our goal," Birdwell said. "To get people to come downtown and shop locally.
"We're doing a bang-up job promoting tourism, and now we want to promote downtown Pensacola as a destination as well," she said.
"Downtown Pensacola has never looked better and never offered shoppers more selection than it does today."
Susan Campbell arranges jewelry in her store off Palafox. Downtown Improvement Board member Campbell is working with the Birdwell Agency to launch a campaign for the holiday season to attract shoppers to downtown Pensacola, and get them to spend their money with local retailers. Michael Spooneybarger/ Pensacola Today[/caption]
DIB board member Campbell is working with the Birdwell Agency to launch a campaign for the holiday season to attract shoppers to downtown Pensacola, and get them to spend their money with locally based retailers.
"The DIB is working on a downtown Pensacola holiday shopping campaign that we hope will spread across the entire central Gulf Coast," Campbell said. "We haven't ironed out all the details yet, but we're hoping to launch the campaign this week.”
Partnering with Jane Birdwell, owner of the Birdwell Agency, Campbell said the shop downtown Pensacola campaign will be centered on a $1,000 cash giveaway awarded during the Dec. 19 Gallery Night event.
"In the past we've tried to promote downtown on TV, but it has not been that effective," she said. "People don't watch cable TV as much. So, now we're doing more social media marketing."
1,000 things to do
Campbell said the new campaign, dubbed "A Thousand Things to do in Downtown Pensacola, will ask participants to describe how or where they would spend $1,000 in the downtown retail area if awarded the money.
"Over the course of the campaign we will be highlighting 1,000 things people can do in downtown Pensacola," Birdwell said. "We're inviting people to share their thoughts and suggestions over social media like Twitter, Facebook and tell us what they love about downtown."
Campbell and Birdwell believe this new marketing campaign for retailers will become a model for future campaigns promoting a "buy local" strategy for downtown Pensacola.
It's also designed to get more people to shop at the ever-increasing number of retail stores popping up in the downtown core.
Birdwell said a recent survey showed that some 40 percent of Escambia County residents had never visited downtown Pensacola.
"That's our goal," Birdwell said. "To get people to come downtown and shop locally.
"We're doing a bang-up job promoting tourism, and now we want to promote downtown Pensacola as a destination as well," she said.
"Downtown Pensacola has never looked better and never offered shoppers more selection than it does today."
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