How can you attract customers if it’s really dark downtown? Photo by Julien on Flickr.
The number one complaint I hear about small town businesses is limited shopping hours. In our busy world, people want to shop in evenings and on weekends, but small town businesses tend to be closed then.
When we talked about this in my newsletter group, Nora wrote back with an important stumbling block: it’s dark. Really dark.
Nora owns a store, the anchor for their three-block downtown area. She closes at 5 pm because there are no streetlights. Without streetlights, it’s much too dark for customers to feel comfortable after 5 pm most of the year.
“My customers do not want to shop at night,” Nora said, “and I know I lose a good deal of business….Except for three summer months, I feel like staying open and having employees to help cover is useless. Do other towns have this problem, and how have they solved it?”
Nora is asking the right question: what do other towns do? And our newsletter group stepped up with some great suggestions.
I kicked off the discussion with three points:
1. Get a group together.
Are there other kinds of businesses that stay open late, or might consider it, anywhere nearby? Maybe a restaurant, bar, club, fitness place, nail salon, or something entirely different? You want to find other business owners who will work with you on your lighting project.
2. Light up a special event.
With you and the group together, consider a lighted mini-festival or special shopping event downtown. With enough light, you may be able to draw people for the special event and prove it’s worth the investment. To test this, you might try temporary exterior lights in front of your store and other participating businesses. Maybe you can hang up white Christmas lights over the sidewalk. Maybe you could borrow some portable work lights on stands, like construction companies use. Those would add a lot of light and would be inexpensive to test. Maybe have a fun theme for the event, like “torchlight parade” or something. Then if you can get customers to participate and shop, you can investigate more permanent lighting solutions.
Here are some photos of lighting alternatives for inspiration:
- LED light strands across an alley
- White light strings supplement insufficient street lights
- Paper lanterns as streetlights in Beijing (think what fun you could have with this idea!)
3. Ask your electric company.
My electric utility offers security lights on poles for businesses. The cost is reasonable per month, and I have one behind my store. So check with your utility. And see if others in your group will join with you getting a pole light.
People are like moths
Brad Jones, BookSmart Enterprises Inc., replied with some basic psychology:
“People, like moths, are attracted to light. LED lights are cheap to run and have really come down in price. Light up the front of your store (and sidewalk) like it is daylight and people will stop just to see what’s going on. Bright lights also have the effect of chasing off cockroaches, both human and insects alike.”
Solar + LED = Win!
Mark Matthews, chief executive of Advance Cairns in Australia, suggested, “Have those businesses though to invest a small amount each to purchase a solar led light they could put on their business. If a number of them did this, then the area would be well lit. It’s really cheap! And you don’t have to wait for the power company..”
Raise the money yourself
Cecil Carter said, “What has happened to several towns I’ve worked in it that the funds were raised privately. In one town it was $65,000 with the city and power company with a small amount of in-kind help. In another small town they did it all. In another town they did 4 blocks of main street with private donations. It can be done even in small towns. AND in the summer it is light until 9:00pm.”
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- About the Author
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Our community has “always” had street lights on our Main Street, but in 2003 we decided to replace the cobra-style lamps with vintage street lights. After all, Palestine is the oldest town in Illinois and some of our buildings date back to the turn of the century 1900s.
Our Committee to PROSPER raised the funds mostly by private donations and assistance from an AMEREN Smart Lights grant.
Individuals could donate a street light for $1,000, the cost of a pole & fixture, and their name or a memorial plate was placed on the light. $26,000 was raised this way for 24 lights. The grants and smaller donations went toward the cost of wiring and installation. Much of the installation was done by volunteers.
This was the last big project for PROSPER. It has since morphed into the Palestine Development Association and this organization continues to work sustaining and developing the community of less than 1,400 pop.
Jim, thank you for sharing your method of getting new lights. That’s a big success for a town of under 1,400 people!