Small Biz Survival

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A row of small town shops

Need a downtown business idea? Try a Cookie Crawl

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A tray of cookies on a craftsman-style table

You’ve tried everything to get locals to come out to downtown businesses, but have you bribed them with cookies?? These jewels were at the Hotel Pattee, Perry, Iowa. Photo (CC) by Sheila Scarborough.

 

Our friend Maury Forman of Washington state, sent us this idea from Madras, Oregon:

On February 16 the Madras Downtown Association and Petite Sweets hosted the first-ever Cookie Crawl. Participants paid $5 and received a box and map that listed all the locations where the beautifully decorated cookies were available. Petite Sweets decorated cookies to match or represent the business.

  • For example, the barber shop offered a cookie that looked like a barber pole
  • and Windemere Real Estate distributed cookies with a for-sale sign.

Organizer Whitney Stubblefield said the event was a great way to encourage the residents who usually do not appear at community events into the downtown businesses.

Sweet! It’s not just a way to get people into businesses, it gives them a chance to talk to each other, with cookies. I don’t even think the cookies have to match the businesses. It would be fun to get all kinds of home-made or random cookies from everyone.

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About Becky McCray

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.

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