Shoppers focus on small businesses
The weather gods smiled on Small Business Saturday in the Short North, with aboveaverage temperatures and partly sunny skies.
Families, couples and friends enjoyed a stroll around the arts district as part of the annual promotion designed to lure shoppers to locally based stores on the day after many hit the chain stores for Black Friday specials.
Alex and Lauren Easley,
of Galloway, were enjoying the day with 9-month-old son Milo, along with Alex’s sister and her husband, Steph and Josh Schreiner, who were visiting for the long Thanksgiving weekend from Minneapolis.
Steph Schreiner suggested they head to the Short North for breakfast and shopping. Lauren Easley had scored a $5 pair of sunglasses on sale at Tigertree, a store featuring an eclectic mix of clothing, accessories and gifts, by late morning.
A few doors down at The Candle Lab, three generations of the Goodman and Zofan families were making custom-scented candles as gifts. Allison Zofan of Eastmoor helped 7-year-old son, Avi, while 5-year old Zach was aided by grandmother Judi Goodman, visiting from North Carolina.
“We went to Bath & Body Works on Black Friday and were smelling different candles,” Zofan said. “We thought it would be fun for them to be able to make their own as presents.”
Short North store windows were decorated for the holidays and hand-lettered sidewalk boards beckoned with special deals. At the southern gateway, the word “Pole” had been added underneath the words “Short North” on one of the district’s signature arches straddling North High Street.
The annual Small Business Saturday promotion, organized by the U.S. Small Business Administration, seemed tailor-made for the Short North, perhaps with the best-known collection of boutiques and locally owned shops in Columbus. But falling on the day of the Big Game between Ohio State and Michigan can be a doubleedged sword.
“Game days usually are slower,” said Bulent Bekcioglu, proprietor of Karavan: Treasures From Turkey. The shop, occupying two storefronts, sells all types of gifts, jewelry, apparel and home goods purchased by Bekcioglu on buying trips to his native Turkey.
Like many Short North shops, Karavan has a little something for everyone in a wide price range, defying some notions that wares sold in the district’s stores are all pricey. A pair of handcrafted earrings there was $8, though a room-sized handloomed rug was closer to $1,000.
The Buckeyes game can be a draw rather than a hindrance for some stores. Many shoppers before game time at noon toted shopping bags from Homage, the Columbusbased maker of vintage-style T-shirts. Homage sells more than 100 styles of shirts, sweatpants and other items featuring Ohio State designs. Its stores have started opening at 9 a.m. on game days — sometimes 8:30 for home games — and do brisk business.
On Paper, a shop at 737 N. High St. featuring fine stationery, wrapping paper and gift items, also capitalized on an early opening. Shoppers flocked to the tightly packed store starting at 10 a.m., before many other neighboring shops opened at 11 or noon.
In addition to the perennial challenge of game day for many retailers, another factor in attracting foot traffic to the Short North is the abundance of orange barrels along North High Street. With a road-narrowing project at the southern end of the district and construction of several major buildings in the blocks north of that, merchants fret that they might not get the traffic they count on to drive sales over the coming month.
“We have plenty of parking in the Short North,” stressed Maren Roth, who owns women’s boutique Rowe and co-owns the newer men’s shop Kiln with her husband, Marc Desrosiers.
To counter the perception that it’s tough to find parking there, the Short North Arts District is highlighting parking and transit options at the top of its ShortNorth.org homepage.