Town officials and the Chamber of Commerce are co-hosting a best practices workshop on March 21 from 8-10am at Wellesley Free Library designed to help business owners and retailers take a fresh look at their stores in hopes of revitalizing business in downtown Wellesley and across the community. The town has stepped up efforts — including by improving street lighting near stores — in recent months to boost a local retail environment that has suffered more than its fair share of losses.
According to the town, such small business improvement programs have been delivered in cities across the state over the past 10 years and have started to extend into smaller communities such as Wellesley.
Christine Moynihan, principal at Retail Visioning, created the program for HUD in Cambridge and has conducted workshops and consulted with hundreds of independent retail businesses over the past ten years. Moynihan previously was VP of Retail Marketing for Clarks (Hey, we used to have one of those in town!) and led store design development for both Clarks and Bostonian stores.
I’d like retailers to make shoppers feel more welcome and greet those who come in. The plus of shopping locally is to feel part of the community, and it’s not too much to expect great service. I don’t want to be overwhelmed by attention, just acknowledged.