When her father, Paul Garrison, founded the Historic Market Square Merchants Association in the mid-1980s, there was no Internet, few big box stores and just a few shopping malls.
Now his daughter Cara, who took over in Lake Forest for her father and now sits as president of the same merchant association, confronts a much different business climate.
But with some help.
The City of Lake Forest’s Economic Development Office is working with the Merchants Association, the various local nonprofit cultural organizations and Broadacre Management group, the realty company for Market Square, to make a concerted effort this summer to drive customer traffic into .
The summer calendar is stocked with events that either actively involve businesses or make them the recipient of a customer base potetnially coming into their store because of the event.
"Our little association of 20 members on the square has wanted to have events that make the downtown seem like a friendly hometown," said Garrison. “Also, events drive extra people into town and this helps us compete with online retailers.”
Jay Shlifka, owner of the , a family business dating back to the 1920s in Lake Forest, remarked, “There is a certain price to pay to remain on Market Square. You can’t open the door in the morning, wait and cross your fingers. You have to be proactive.”
In June, a “Fore Dads” activity was held for Father’s Day and a free day long Make Music festival featuring some local vocal ensembles, rock bands, dueling pianos and a musical petting zoo was held in Market Square.
This month, the is sponsoring a “Where’s Waldo” contest that involves 20 downtown businesses sandwiched around the annual Sidewalk Sale, July 19-21.
At the end of the month, Illinois’ first all-women’s road bike ride, Venus de Miles, will take place in Lake Forest. The race will offer two courses, 30 and 60 miles, starting from .
“The city has been instrumental to streamline efforts to work efficiently to get things done and focus on things that work,” said Garrison.
Back from last year are the Thursday night free and Saturday morning’s .
A complete schedule of activity dates and times is listed on the , a free download launched this spring that offers discounts to Market Square merchants for the mobile phone shopper.
“Shop owners in retail businesses often work 14 hours per day doing everything they can to work the business,” said Susan Kelsey, economic development coordinator for Lake Forest. “We help them grow their business by planning events.”
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This City missed the boat when they failed to improve Western properly. Instead of making Western more pedestrian friendly, they made it more car friendly. That isnt going to bring people running.
Let us try to SHOP LOCAL!! Forest Bootery has been with us to serve our families so let us keep them here by shopping there; the Lake Forest Book Store has some of the most knowledgeable staff around!! I've visited a couple of the new stores, and will be back when I need to purchase. An outdoor cafe would certainly add to a walk & shop culture. Hopefully Broadacre will understand this and try to look for such a tenant.
Once Fields closed & Macy's opened everything closed down, stores moved or closed up for good. I wonder why LF is losing money, is it because the owners of the buildings are greedy? When will the LF realize that they should have put Costco or any other income raising store in their town? If a marketing research company did a study I bet they would see a lot of LF city stickers in their parking lots. As I was always told this favorite statement: Live and Learn
That being said, Market Square rents have always been higher because they are prime real estate. That's why Broadacre spent the big bucks to own it and that's why retailers spend the extra money to be on the Square. What has changed is the amount of volume that the stores see. If a retail store dosen't sell enough volume then they cannot pay the rent (period) If a store cannot pay the rent they go out of business or have to move to a rent they can be profitable at. The nation is in a state of "retail-crisis." The Forest Bootery isn't just in competition with Kiddles, or the mall but also the internet. If you go to the post office and see a Zappos box that was revenue that the Forest Bootery could have used towards the high rent, it was sales tax that would have stayed in Lake Forest and it secured a job selling shoes for your teenager when they turn 16. As Paul Garrison has always said to me: "If every Lake Forester shopped with you, you would never need more customers."