Jonathan Morris, U.S. Ranger Ret. & Rowan County Sheep Baron
♦ No small wonder why new businesses in Downtown Salisbury seldom remain open for long or that people dare to even venture there. It’s all very simple to explain, but apparently the merchants down there don’t get it. They don’t understand all those vacancies and more to come. The lack of vehicular traffic or people on the street? Perhaps they prefer to live in a world of make believe.
The yet unlearned merchant lessons in downtown Salisbury. I’m trying to be helpful.
• Always sell stuff that people need, not what you imagine they need. Most of those merchants in Downtown Salisbury don’t meet many people’s needs. That is why you don’t see people breaking down barriers to come anywhere near Downtown Salisbury.
• People don’t want to come to blighted and vacancy-filled areas. It bums them out. It’s like going to an Ebola ward. Most people don’t want to see suffering. It’s a downer to visit a hapless ghost town where you can see who is going to shut down next.
• Nobody wants to bother with stores that close promptly at 5 p.m. People like to go to stores after work. When they see nothing is open after 5 p.m., they don’t bother coming back.
• Let’s face it–nobody, but nobody wants to pay list price. That’s why everybody goes shopping on the internet or travels out of Rowan County to Concord Mills, Huntersville, Afton Ridge, Winston, Mooresville, or even Charlotte to do their purchasing. They are more liable to find what they want on the internet or in big box chain stores at inexpensive prices.
• Many in the county are angry about the downtown merchants trying to sponge off the county taxpayer by demanding the Central Office be shoved downtown where it will cost far more.
• We see these downtown merchants reading scripts and attacking good and decent county commissioners who work hard for all the citizens of Rowan County. A lot of county people avoid going to downtown Salisbury because they are fed-up with what they see.
• Many people are scared off by the crime in Downtown Salisbury. It’s an undeniable fact. You walk Main Street and you see the gang graffiti and the busted windows on the backside of those buildings. It doesn’t make people feel safe going there. Stick-ups, carjacks, train robberies, beats, and murders are reported all around Salisbury. Anybody going there after dark is taking their life in their own hands.
• Parking? There’s practically none and nothing is being done about it.
• Can anyone imagine the devastation that ‘traffic calming’ on East Innes will do to drive people away from even coming anywhere near Salisbury?
It’s sad. Downtown Salisbury is nothing what it once was many years ago. Instead it has become a vacant and blighted eyesore overrun with panhandlers and hardcases looking for a ‘stray lamb’.
