With the changing of the guard at the Yorkton Business Improvement District (YBID), it’s a good opportunity to start thinking about what Yorkton retail needs to succeed.
The most basic need they have is people, especially people with money to spend. YBID’s sponsorship of the Santa Claus Day parade has been a smart move. While they didn’t originate the event, they do recognize that it’s something that is extremely beneficial to the downtown as a whole. Downtown businesses benefit from the influx of people, and even just someone ducking indoors for a couple minutes to escape the cold could quickly become a customer if they see something they like. The clothing stores in the area would also be prudent in putting their cold weather gear in a prominent location just in case someone is under-dressed for the weather.
But that’s a one-off. It’s an excellent one-off, one that Yorkton needs to be proud of, but it’s still one day a year. Same deal with the other big event for the downtown, the CP Holiday Train. An excellent event that is going to bring a ton of people downtown and really show off the city, but it’s still only one day. Businesses also operate the rest of the year. These one-off events are a great thing, and need to be encouraged, but the challenge for YBID’s new executive director, Donna Brothwell, along with the rest of the board, is going to be the days between one-off events.
What the business district needs is not just events, but it needs to get people downtown between those events. What the business district needs is to be a place people go when they’re not sure what they want to do. This is because people who don’t have a particular mission are a great way for people to discover new and interesting businesses. They’re inclined to look at new businesses and older ones they’ve never visited before. They don’t have a mission, or a particular place they want to go, which makes them great for discovering new businesses and spreading the word. These are people who will have conversations about a ‘cute little shop’ they saw one day. You build on the aimless.
In a lot of ways, Yorkton is very well positioned for this. There’s a park in the middle that serves as a focal point and meeting spot. There are interesting buildings to look at and lots of places to stop. Part of the credit for this goes to YBID itself, which has sponsored things like benches to give people a place to catch a break when they are exploring.
Now the question is not merely how to get people downtown, but how to make the downtown a place where people go without any real reason behind it. That’s a real challenge, but something businesses and YBID are going to have to collaborate to figure out. If they can do it, they could help the entire community.
