ELYRIA — Downtown Elyria is working to boost its economy after a decline in downtown foot traffic.
Michael Griffin is board chair of the Elyria Community Partnership; The organization focuses on generating revenue and exposure in the downtown area.
On Saturday, they hosted the first Small Business Saturday, encouraging people to rediscover downtown Elyria. Passports and reusable shopping bags filled with spring-themed goodies were available at each participating store. The passports contained a complete list of available stops. Each passport had a tear-off page to enter into a raffle to win prizes at local stores and restaurants.
“It encourages people to explore downtown and be aware of what’s downtown,” Griffin said.
Many corner stores in downtown Elyria were eager to participate in the event in hopes of drawing more attention to local businesses.
“A lot of people who live on the next block don’t know we’re here,” Carole Doerr said.
Doerr is the owner of Pearls Girls Knitch and Stitch in downtown Elyria. The store is filled with yarns and fibers. Doerr's company also offers classes and to make ends meet, the company participates in over 20 shows and festivals per year.
Doerr said like many businesses in the area, they have taken a major hit during COVID-19.
“We had little to no business because everyone went online and some of them just couldn’t get away with going online,” Doerr said.
While some downtown Elyria businesses didn't have an online option during the pandemic, others adapted to stay in business. Like Crystal Era, a metaphysical shop that has been downtown for 30 years.
Victoria Kempton is a spokesperson for Crystal Era; She said it is the largest and oldest metaphysical store in Ohio. During the pandemic, they reached out to customers and drove to their homes. Four years later, they are still offering similar services.
“It has taken a while for people to feel safe again, but we are doing our best to get people out of their homes and back into the small corner shops,” Kempton said.
People looked forward to visiting the various shops; Donna Henry drove from Grafton to see what the local shops had to offer.
“It's very important to keep these people in business instead of going into mass production plants,” Henry said.
Griffin said they will continue to host weekly events to attract people back to downtown Elyria.
“We really want to bring businesses here and bring revenue into the local economy, into small businesses like this, and raise taxes for the city. “The more people who shop downtown, work downtown and hopefully live downtown, the more revenue will come into the city, which will make the city better for everyone,” Griffin said.
Every Thursday in the summer there are food vendors and music downtown.
“We're really trying to attract people downtown and now we're expanding events like this throughout the year to continue traffic through downtown and raise awareness of our local businesses. People don’t come into these stores as much as we would like and it’s just about making people aware of downtown,” Griffin said.
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