Jun 23, 2008
For Women, Cooperation Is The AnswerBy Lorrie Delk WalkerTheLedger.com

Auburndale – Downtown Auburndale was a blighted area when Terrie Howell opened her gift shop, Treasures on the Park, 12 years ago.

Today, the area is bustling with hair salons, retail shops and eateries. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of the Downtown businesses are owned by women, said Joy Pruitt, director of Auburndale Chamber Main Street. Many of the women who have started businesses in downtown said they simply felt drawn to the area.

“One thing that happens here in Auburndale that doesn’t happen easily in other places that I’ve seen is that they all work together,” Pruitt said. “They have put competition aside.”

And therein lies the key to the merchants’ success, according to several downtown business owners. Howell, whose business is located at 10 Bobby Green Place, began working with other retailers about 10 years ago when there were just two or three retailers in the area, she said.

It began with an informal agreement of sorts.

“I told (the other retailers) that I would send my customers to their stores and vice versa,” Howell said.

Today’s cooperative agreement is more organized. Several business owners created a downtown merchant’s group and each month, Tabitha Hill, owner of Magnolia Tea Room, 212 Howard St., creates a flier that lists offers at her establishment and other shops in the area, including specials, clearance sales and discounts. All the businesses in the group put the fliers in their shops and give them to customers.

“We just had a core group of people interested in Downtown succeeding, not just their own business,” Hill said of the merchants’ group. “(We understand) that people aren’t going to come to a town if there’s only one shop because it takes a variety of interests to attract people.”

In addition to the fliers, the group also has created events to attract people to the area.

“The key marketing lesson is you cannot open your doors and expect customers to come in,” said Carin Jones, who opened Casual Chic Boutique, 108 Main St., in August 2006. “You have to have events and activities and create some type of energy that people want to come to.”

The group organizes a Mother’s Day luncheon, a November shopping event to kick off the holiday season and a men’s night before Christmas and Valentine’s Day each year. Men who bring a shopping list get discounts in the shops, Jones said.

The group also sponsors an Easter Tea, where participants receive an Easter basket and go on a scavenger hunt and visit all the downtown shops in the process.

“We’ve been working so hard and we’re very focused on bringing traffic to downtown,” Jones said. “We’re really excited that we’ve been able to see an increase in foot traffic down here.”

Howell always has believed that “the more there is to do, the more traffic we will attract,” she said, adding that through these organized activities, the adage has held true.

The success among retailers in Downtown Auburndale is the result of laying aside competition, Hill said.

“In my opinion, I’m not interested in just my business,” she said. “I’m interested in the whole picture because unless we have the whole picture, we’re not going to succeed.”

Small retailers elsewhere have noticed what’s going on in Auburndale.

“I’ve had a couple of ladies with businesses in Winter Haven and Lakeland who are just amazed at our little group that we have,” Hill said.

Those business owners also are inquiring about how to replicate Downtown Auburndale’s success elsewhere.

One key to success is making the business look professional, and not as though it’s just a hobby, Jones said.

Jones also believes in “leveraging marketing off each others’ strengths,” she said.