Gloucester businesses are looking to make town a 'must-do' destination with the Shop Gloucester Sales street event.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With no Gloucester Chill Out festival this year, business owners were looking for a way to still bring hoards of shoppers into town.
Business owners, Melissa Leitch and Evette Terras wondered what they could do to keep up the recent momentum of the booming trade in Gloucester.
"Chill Out is normally when the businesses launch their sales, so we thought what can we do to have a collective sale," Melissa explained.
"Evette hit the footpath and started talking to other business owners to see if they were interested and the response was very positive."
They decided to launch #shopgloucestersales to help the businesses promote themselves on social media with a sale day locked in for what would have been the Chill Out festival weekend.
"Lots of people have been asking if we are still doing Chill Out and many people are still booked to come into town for it, so we thought we hold a street sale," Melissa explained.
On Saturday July 25, Gloucester businesses all over the town are looking to spill out onto the footpath and promote their winter sales. Businesses are being encouraged to utilise MidCoast Council's vibrant spaces campaign to brighten up the street appeal.
The idea follows the three-day Great Lakes Great Sales event held in Forster/Tuncurry during the school holidays, where people were encouraged to snap up a bargain.
But it's not just about getting more shoppers into town, it's about showing off the diversity of business goods.
"It's important for people to know what Gloucester has offer," Melissa said.
And not just to stop for a glance, but also to have people hang around for while.
"We want to make Gloucester a destination. A place to shop and stay," Evette said. "And everyone is really on board with it."
After some pretty tough times over the past year or so, the Gloucester business community is finally starting to find its feet again, and with it a new wave of positive energy and unification.
The past few weeks have been really busy in Gloucester after the lifting of COVID restrictions and the businesses want to make sure the momentum continues. People are still traveling and the hope is the event will entice them to stop and stay a while.
While the street sale won't be quite the extravaganza of a full blown festival given there are still restrictions around how the businesses operate to ensure customers remain safe, it still promises to be something worth coming into town for.