Editor's Journal: Building a Shopping Community

June 13, 2010 | Story by: Hal Goodtree | Categories: Editors Journal

Story by Hal Goodtree. Photos by Karl Fisher.

Cary, NC – Our town is full of communities: Cary Photographic Artists gathers a community of photographers. The Downtown Community Garden gathers a community of philanthropic-minded green thumbs.

There are shopping communities as well. Last week’s “Summer Nights” at Preston Walk showed a path toward making shopping communities more meaningful, and from a business standpoint, more popular.

Create a Gathering Place

Preston Walk created an instant gathering place by closing off part of the parking lot, having a band, setting up some booths for vendors and making opportunities for children to play.

Merchants opened their doors and invited the public in for free things like wine tasting at Sip, gelato for kids at Henry’s and tasty offerings from Stonewood Grill and Biaggi’s. Over two hundred people showed up, the evening was dry and a good time was had by all.

From Parking Lots to Communities

Preston Walk didn’t invent the parking lot festival, but the warm response and solid attendance shows that they’re on to something.

In an event-series like “Summer Nights,” designed to draw a regular neighborhood crowd, why not attract some of Cary’s other communities to join in? CPA, the Community Garden, the Cary Players, SuperSkippers, Friends of Page Walker and many more could set up tables and make some new friends.

Cost: Zero. Benefit: Priceless.

Suddenly, a commercial event becomes more like a weekly community fair. A Facebook page and fan base can’t be far behind.

The Importance of Cross-Promotion

Naturally, these events create some cross-pollination between devotees of different businesses within the shopping community. That benefit could be greatly magnified by an active and continual effort.

Most shopping developments are unfriendly to pedestrians. You can walk from Stonewood Grill to Henry’s Gelato, but few people do. A little cross-couponing could change that.

Why would Stonewood want to send its customers to Henry’s for dessert? Because Henry’s would be sending Stonewood new customers for dinner.

Call this the “piazza effect.” There’s something grand about having dinner in one place and dessert at another. Throw in a little shopping and you have an evening, not just a meal.

The developer who can deliver that experience will have something unique in Cary.

Our friends at North Hills in Raleigh demonstrate this principle. Their Beach Music series draws thousands of people on Thursdays. And it’s great for the restaurants, bars and stores.

The Ideal Shopping Community

Like North Hills, the ideal shopping community has the parking around the outside and the stores on the inside facing a central plaza.

Spokes from the central hub into the parking lots invite people to park near their favorite stores and enter the community just steps from their own cars. Wide, tree-lined paths provide good sight-lines and easy access.

Lively hubs need a central focus. A fountain, a small stage or a kid-friendly sculpture give a plaza a unique signature.

Kid-friendly is crucially important. That’s why interior roads hurt the piazza concept. Parents want to be able to sit an have a glass of wine while the kids romp on the statue. Crossing an active roadway does not feel safe.

And the central feature needs to be informal enough for kids to romp on – not gaze up at. Good public features of this kind include “Alice in Wonderland” outside the Central Park Zoo (where I romped as a tot) and this crazy head from a plaza in Paris.

Shopping Communities – It’s a Growth Business

Go Local initiatives are gaining strength across the nation. Local communities of business, defined by a common geographic location, can ride that wave.

“Summer Nights at Preston Walk” is a first for our community – a weekly festival event in a commercial development. We wish them continued success and growth through innovative community engagement.

Take a look at a short slideshow covering the event by Karl Fisher.