DEL.ICIO.USAcworth Main Street kept safe from Wall Street woes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 16, 2008
In Acworth, population 25,000, Main Street is surviving in the traditional small town, neighborly way.
Along a three-block stretch of historic Main Street, shops and restaurants rely on themselves and each other to make it through the increasingly bad economy without a $700 billion Wall Street-style bailout from taxpayers.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
Acworth is a certified Main Street City and has a thriving main street actually named Main Street.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
Cookie Thorpe, owner of the Oak Barrel wine shop and president of the Historic Downtown Acworth Merchants Group.
The north Cobb town has a stable, viable Main Street business district by design.
“If people get in a bad way down here, they can’t look to their corporate offices to help them out. We have to rely on ourselves,” said Cookie Thorpe, owner of the Oak Barrel wine shop and president of the Historic Downtown Acworth Merchants Group.
If Fusco’s Via Roma Italian restaurant runs out of bread, they simply go into the kitchen at Henry’s Louisiana Grill in the next block and take a loaf. If one shop runs out of bags, they borrow from the store next door.
Main Street merchants refer people to nearby shops for items they don’t carry. They do their own shopping along Main Street and don’t duplicate each other’s merchandise.
“Each store is unique,” said Shana Gould, who owns Divas & Dames Boutique.
A shopper can buy everything from kitchen canisters to a handcrafted mahogany bar, relax with a sandwich or a full-course meal, visit a doctor or lawyer, get financial advice, see a play, even plan his or her funeral courtesy of historic Main Street merchants.
“In a small 3 1/2-block area, to have small business clusters like that is very attractive to people. It gives that Southern, small-town feeling,” said Eric Bonaparte, assistant state director of the University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center.
Shop owners and city leaders are partners. Acworth has spent $20 million in special purpose local option sales tax money to widen Main Street, add 125 parking spaces and offer merchants incentives, Mayor Tommy Allegood said.
“First, to do all of these things, elected officials and the city staff had to be like-minded in their vision and be willing to make the commitment to the investment,” Allegood said.
Acworth is a certified national Main Street City, the only one in Cobb County. It is recertified annually for meeting standards in design, marketing, economic development and historic preservation. Each year, the city draws tens of thousands of visitors during the 30 events it sponsors.
Each family-owned business employs from two to more than 50 people and supports dozens of vendors, often local small businesses themselves. Anticipating a worsening economy, merchants are taking cost-saving steps.
Henry Chandler, owner of Henry’s Louisiana Grill, was the first new business to locate on historic Main Street eight years ago. He freely admits his restaurant has been affected by the economy.
“People are nervous,” Chandler said. “People are holding their money back. I see more splits, more people ordering half orders, not ordering dessert, not ordering more to take out.”
On balance, Chandler counts the cost of each straw, instructs his staff in cutting waste, watches overtime and has suppliers competing for his business.
Joanne Tubo said her businesses are stable, but she worries what will happen if she has to turn to the bank for help later. She owns the building that houses her Wind in the Willows gift shop and newly opened Waterstone Grill.
Two businesses will close the first of the year as two new retail shops and an art gallery open. There is not, and rarely is, a vacant building on the historic Main Street.
The city, business associations and the merchants themselves are devoted to promoting the unique area, and it pays off.
“It’s a destination, and we’ve worked hard for 10 years to make it one,” Gould said.
A traveler with a long layover at the Atlanta airport had heard of Henry’s Louisiana Grill, Chandler said. The man hired a cab to drive him 45 miles to Acworth, enjoyed a meal at Henry’s and taxied back to the airport.
Gould drives a can’t-miss Volkswagen convertible painted in pink and black polka dots replicating the decor of her boutique, which is known far from Acworth. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Gould’s Divas & Dames Boutique and car were talked about by survivors in a Mississippi shelter, she said.
“That little car works seven days a week,” Gould said.
Just like Main Street merchants.
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