Greenwood’s annual Holiday Open House and Yuletide Trolley Ride is on track, and city merchants are hoping it will bring lots of shoppers to their stores.
“It’s a really good way to help the retailers and the restaurants, to get people to think about shopping locally,” said Beth Stevens, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce, the event’s sponsor.
The three-day event begins at 5 p.m. Thursday and includes two trolleys, which will make regular stops at participating merchants — both downtown and on West Park Avenue.
Santa Claus will also be alternating between the trolleys throughout the evening.
Although the trolleys will stop running at 8 p.m. Thursday, the open house will continue — without the trolleys — Friday and Saturday during normal business hours, Stevens said.
The effort is intended to get shoppers to consider Greenwood first before heading to Jackson or Memphis, she said: “There’s no reason why everybody can’t do most of their Christmas shopping right here in Greenwood.”
To help ensure a good turnout, a roving “Chamber Prize Patrol” will be handing out “Chamber Bucks” to lucky customers at the participating retailers.
The Chamber Bucks can be used to purchase items at participating retailers. Up to $500 in Chamber Bucks will be awarded over the three-day period. In addition, shoppers who make purchases will receive dining discount coupons good at six participating restaurants.
Gail Goldberg, co-owner of Conerly’s Shoes & Clothing, said the open house is “a great opportunity to remind everyone in our community of all the great opportunities right here.”
Shopping locally helps everyone, Goldberg said. “By supporting the merchants, we’re supporting the community” through increased sales tax receipts, she said.
Goldberg said she was talking to a customer recently who told her she loves living in Greenwood.
“I told her, ‘I do also. I would never want to live anywhere else. It’s a very strong, connected community,’” she said.
An advantage for customers in Greenwood is that retailers “are pretty much in their stores all the time. You see the same people,” Goldberg said.
That, in turn, helps develop long-term relationships and connections that “go far beyond a business transaction.” Such relationships simply cannot be established at a “big box store” or over the internet, she said.
Stevens said the merchants are already in the Christmas spirit: “They’re excited.”
nContact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
