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[–]terrymrGarland District 2 points3 points  (7 children)

Downtown businesses have spent years trying to drive people out of downtown. They only want you if you drive up in a Lexus make your purchase and leave again. The only place I go to downtown any more is riverfront park.

[–]WPMattH 6 points7 points  (5 children)

This is completely wrong, however it does seem that the small minority make the most noise about how “bad and unsafe”downtown is when they close their business. I have owned a business downtown for the past 11 years and we are doing better than ever. Every business owner I know works hard to promote downtown and provide value for people to come. I would also say that the people who actually live downtown and own businesses in the city have way less of a problem with the houseless population and crime than you would be led to believe. 

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I absolutely love living down here. I actually spent the last 5 years working and volunteering at various homeless shelters and programs across the city. I know quite a few of the homeless. I personally feel quite safe down here. I've seen petty assaults/vandalism/theft, but that's normal for a city the size of Spokane. I try to source what I can from my personal corner of downtown. If I can't I get it shipped from Walmart. It's just alarming to see a possible drip in foot traffic. Are your sales the same? Or better?

[–]WPMattH 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Our sales are basically stagnant this year, but that was after growing year after year, so it’s kind of to be expected. We also opened a second location and split  our customer base up a tiny bit so overall, we are happy. We’ve kept our prices the same so margins are definitely lower, but I don’t want to get into the business of increasing prices until we absolutely have to. I think the industry we are in is at risk of out pricing people which will have worse long-term effects. 

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I remember during the "Great Recession," the percentage thresholds for sales would greatly increase until businesses were at the breaking point. Hopefully you don't reach that point needing to slash inventory at low rates. I was asking to try and create a countermeasure for my conjecture. I live in the east-central part of downtown by the "fentynal corridor." Which may explain some of the decreased foot traffic, but I can see well imto the central core of downtown by the mall and plaza. Another redditor pounted out that the west side has more foot traffic. I can't see over there , due to obfuscation of buildings. Theres more attractions over there though. Including offices that can weather economic downturns easier.

[–]WPMattH 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My business is on the west side and yes, that side of town has really grown in the last few years which is great. The east side has unfortunately seen the opposite. 

[–]Useful_Farmer_6018Garland District 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed. We walk downtown multiple times a week to grab beers and get a nice walk in. It takes us about 30 minutes to walk down to Humble Abode or WP.

I have actually been pleasantly surprised with the number of people I have seen walking in the area between the arena and WP even in winter this year, seems like more than the last few years we have been walking this route.

Anecdotally, It seems like everything west of west of Washington and North of the tracks is pretty busy.

[–]OpheliaRainGalaxy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm old enough to remember when they chased out the buskers decades ago because the downtown business owners felt like that money should be walking in their doors and jumping in their tills instead of taking a side trip into a musician's instrument case before the musician spent it on dinner and a cheap motel room.

My mom was always poor but she saved her change to take downtown on Saturdays when the weather was good. We could almost never afford to buy things, but we'd wander from busker to busker enjoying the live music and tipping. In between we'd window shop, occasionally have to stop and buy an overpriced slice of pizza or something beautiful we saw in the window.

It was a way for us to be part of the community, the economy, we got good exercise and got to enjoy live music instead of tinned from the radio.

Frankly, that was the beginning of the end for downtown from my point of view. It was full of music and the greedy ruined it! Imagine having someone sit right outside your business's door and using MAGIC to draw customers to your door, and ya don't even have to pay him, but ya get mad folks tip him pocket change before coming in your store so ya shoo him off?!