Madison, WI – Can it be that Main Street, Madison, bucked the national recession that saw steep declines in retail sales for December’s holiday shopping season?
With a little help from its friends in the community, that seems to be the case.
Collaboration was the key to success in December’s “If You Love Madison, Shop Madison” campaign, according to Main Street Executive Director James Burnet.
Merchants, borough government, residents and schools all played their part in the campaign to attract shoppers downtown, which ran from “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving, through the holiday season. The downtown campaign included discounts, prizes, promotions, entertainment, sales of gift certificates, and a lot of visibility with signs and even “Shop Madison” buttons.
With holiday sales down nationally from 5 to 40 percent, Madison merchants are agreeing with Burnet about the significance of the “Shop Madison” campaign. Some have reported December sales equal to – or in some cases better than – their sales last year, he said.
For Rachel Chiarolanzio of Alfred’s Sport Shop on Main Street, the campaign was a “pleasant surprise,” even though she admitted being skeptical at first.
“We had lots of customers in here, and I could see that it made people enthusiastic,” said Chiarolanzio, whose father David owns the Main Street store.
