Retail committee meeting Monday

Members of the Lovell area retail community are invited to a meeting next week to begin the process of joining forces in hopes of forging cooperation and fostering promotional ideas for local retail businesses.

The meeting to form a Lovell Retail Committee is being sponsored by the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce and is scheduled for Monday, April 14, at 7 p.m. at the chamber office at 287 East Main.

“We just have a feeling that we need to do something and not just focus on tourism,” chamber manager Linda Morrison said, adding that the chamber mission statement includes the words “promoting the Lovell Area as a great place to live, work and do business.”

“We’ve been talking about it for a while now,” added Wild Edge business owner and chamber board member Cindy Asay. “People come in and ask, ‘Where can I get this?’ It would be good to know each other’s businesses so we can guide customers.”

Asay said she doesn’t see fellow downtown businesses as competitors and would like to see retailers join together to plan shopping events and downtown promotions.

She added that the goal is to get shoppers to stay in town and visit multiple stores, stopping at a restaurant in between.

“The more we can keep them in town, the better off we are,” she said, adding, “The more we promote each other’s businesses, the stronger we are.”

“There’s a lot that we have and that we do,” Morrison said. “I like Cindy’s thoughts. We want to provide opportunities for visitors to experience our community. There’s a lot to offer. We know (local) people will shop out of town, but we want people to try here first.”

The meeting

Morrison is out this week promoting the meeting as “Makin’ It Happen – How can we create a better shopping experience for both visitors and local folks? Let’s work together to breathe new life into Lovell’s shopping experience.”

Morrison and Asay said all retailers, shop owners, restaurant owners and managers and lodging operators are invited to the meeting to start the process of asking “What do we want to do?” and build from there, adding that anyone is invited if they have an interest in the community.

Asay and Morrison have been reading the book “The Power of Moments” to help form ideas for what a retailer can do to make people want to come back.

“We want to build our own brand as a shopping community,” Morrison said.

The idea is to “band together, support each other, learn from each other and come up with ideas for promotions,” Asay said, while making it fun in the process.