Photo complements of Grimsby Hollow Meadery

Subscribe

Cool Weather and Cool Ideas for
​Economic Development

Football, festivals, and Friday night dates: all on hold in many states as COVID-19 continues to hamper the economy. Year over year, only home improvement and electronic are in positive territory. Dining, shopping centers, and fitness centers are deep into negative territory.​

​How can communities help local businesses and other organizations push through the cool season? Here are ideas that gain traction:
 
1 – Come on up to the window
Curbside pickup and drive-through services are everywhere. Many businesses—and not only fast-food restaurants—are incorporating shop-by-car options with drive-thru facilities. Medical clinics, nail salons, churches, and even local governments are adapting services to be delivered while people sit in their cars. With a little innovation, almost any business can implement ways to make this work.
 
2 – Taking it to the streets
Pop-up, outdoor dining, and shopping areas outside of a business’s physical facility are surging and energizing the streetscapes. Many towns have lifted local zoning restrictions to allow more of these types of stores and “streeteries” to be installed in parking areas or on public sidewalks. The City of Walla Walla, WA, has been especially active in creating attractive downtown spaces and parklets to draw people out while keeping them safe. To keep up activity in the cooler, wetter months, the City of Chicago is leveraging a public idea submission process that captures ideas from inexpensive PVC and plastic dining areas to more elaborate yurts and igloos.
 
3 – The store comes to you
Some of us remember “book mobiles” and the ice cream man. Those business models are back with an explosion of food trucks, mobile services, and even a “retail closet” – a small retail spaces within commercial or multifamily properties. And home deliveries are no longer for pizza and Amazon orders. Prescription drugs, car washing, dog grooming, and hair cuts are coming right to residents’ door steps.
 
4 – Drawing a crowd
Bringing people together is a mainstay off community development efforts. People need people. They want to touch and experience products and need the socialization that comes with being in crowds. But those crowds need spread out to ensure safety. While spreading physically is one option, they also can spread over time. Self-guided walking tours and foodie strolls give people a reason to be out and drive traffic to retailers and restaurants.

Examples?

• Have a pumpkin spice stroll where local restaurants make deserts/warm beverages and local stores host treats for a themed “taste of” event.
• Recruit local houses of worship to demo tastes of their best recipes (and sell recipe books). Again, have the food in local businesses. 
• Engage regional artists for a visual arts/performing arts stroll with local stores and restaurants as the venues for these pop-up galleries and micro performances.
• Reach out to regional beekeepers and wineries for a mead stroll (these have a growing buzz).
• Create and market a self-guided tour that educates visitors on the architectural features and building histories in the city with an emphasis on features of local stores and restaurants – including interior features. Pull in a local college to help out.
• And with the spooky season coming (Halloween, not the election), there’s the opportunity for ghost/true crime tours....

It may be a year or longer until the economy turns the corner, but many cost-effective ideas can help the community be safely engaged, visitors to have a reason to visit, and local businesses to draw traffic.

Community360 Annual Metrics Report

Further reading

For more information on how Cobalt can help you adapt and thrive in the changing demographic, economic and social environment, visit the Cobalt website or reach out to us by email. Let us know if you need anything at all for benchmarking or research data; we are here for you. 

Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing Information@CobaltCommunityResearch.org.