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Meet the entrepreneurs who saved their hometowns' dying main streets
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작성자 Melanie 작성일25-02-28 12:10 조회7회 댓글0건본문
Harvey Williams Jr took a million-dollar gamble when he opened a distillery in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, to help revive its forlorn main street.
The agricultural engineer grew up in the area, and moved back there and made plans to reverse urban decline in his part of the Mississippi River delta.
'It was a dying Main Street,' he told The Wall Street Journal. 'It was shocking to see how downtown became a ghost town.'
He's not alone.
Budding entrepreneurs across the US are opening businesses to revive shabby-looking main streets, which only decades ago were bustling hubs and a backbone to communities.
Harvey Williams Jr pours a glass of liquor at his distillery, which helped revive ailing Helena-West Helena, Arkansas.
America's main streets have had a tough few decades, as retail moves online and brick-and-mortar stores shutter.
Read More
Tiny NH town tears itself apart over 'subversive messaging' in LGBT murals painted on the side of a main street apartments: 'I don't want them here'
Some are surprise hits, but others cannot turn the tide against deep economic forces.
Williams spent $800,000 of his retirement savings plus $230,000 in bank loans to renovate 430 Cherry Street.
His Delta Dirt Distillery makes sweet-potato vodka using produce from his family's farm.
Locals questioned Williams's business sense when it opened in April 2021.
But they helped spread word of the place on social media.
His gamble paid off.
Sales last year hit $340,000 — 5 percent online, 95 percent from in-store shoppers and distributors across Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Tourists travel from afar to visit the store.
Some also take a tour of Williams' family's 86-acre vegetable farm, which his grandfather bought in 1949 with money from cotton and moonshine sales.
Williams says he looked beyond Helena-West Helena to sell his vodka far, wide and on the web.
'It's important for Main Street businesses to be diversified these days and not just to rely on the local population to succeed,' he says.
He plans to expand distribution, offer new products and open a pizzeria next door.
Joseph Whitfield, executive director of the Phillips County Chamber of Commerce, Senuke proxies says Williams lured business and visitors back to a struggling area that was losing population.
'Harvey has developed a blueprint on how to open a successful world-class business in rural America despite all the challenges he had to overcome,' says Whitfield.
Main streets in America's small towns and cities were once the lifeblood of local and mom-and-pop businesses.
But small local stores have for decades been losing sales as shoppers migrated online or to big-box stores and shopping malls.
The Delta Dirt Distillery makes sweet-potato vodka using produce from Williams' family's farm.
The distillery's sales hit $340,000 last year, mostly from in-store shoppers and distributors across Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Brian and Jennifer Jones, center, took the plunge and moved from California to Virginia, where they opened a pizzeria and pub.
Read More
Chase abruptly shuts 7 branches in just one week - amid total closures of 14 from major US banks
Nowadays, many small town main streets are reeling, as industries close down and people move to find jobs.
They're often peppered with shuttered storefronts and ailing businesses.
For some entrepreneurs, this can be part of the attraction in chancing a new business.
Some have roots in the community and want to help turn it around.
Others are drawn to small-town charms, or the chance to create a dream business in a quaint location.
Jennifer Jones and her husband, Brian, are among those who took the plunge.
They owned a water-filtration company in northern California, but got worn down by the area's crime rates, taxes, high living costs and wildfires.
They moved to Big Stone Gap, a former coal town of some 5,300 people in Virginia's Appalachian Mountains, which they found on a vacation.
'We fell in love with the town, its beauty, and its people; they were so nice and welcoming,' Jones says.
'We felt like we stepped back in time 30 years ago.'
In April 2022, they bought a struggling vegan pizzeria and its building on an increasingly dilapidated Wood Avenue East.
The street was lined with failed and struggling stores in a town that had been losing residents since its coalfield closed in the 1990s.
They spent $223,000 of their own money and borrowed $187,000 more to create the Good Times Coal-Fired Pizza and Pub, which hosts live music.
Enthusiastic locals helped them lay floors, build the bar and paint the restaurant, while town manager Stephen Lawson and others promoted the venue on social media.
The shared effort breathed new life into an ailing community, said Lawson.
'The Joneses' pizzeria and restaurant has had a positive impact on our town and has inspired other entrepreneurs to set up shop on Wood Avenue,' he said.
Bill Waterhouse's struggling outdoors good store had to shutter, so he went into partnership with local guiding business Adventure Calls Outfitters.
'We are seeing more business activity and some population growth as people move here from all parts of the country in search of a better life.'
Bill Waterhouse, a former finance administrator, and his partner, Sonja Olbert, a home health aide, also spotted an opportunity for a local startup.
Four years ago, the hiking enthusiasts quit their jobs and left Massachusetts for Dansville, in upstate New York, to care for aging parents.
They lived near Leicester, a hamlet of 2,500 people, which had seen its main street suffer as the rust belt spread in the 1980s.
With a $25,000 local grant they in April 2020 opened Trail Otter, selling boating, hiking, and camping gear, at 134 Main Street.
It is close to Letchworth State Park and its trails, waterfalls and scenic gorge.
The pandemic was a good time to start a business for outdoor sports, and thanks to some clever marketing, they hit $40,000 in sales.
But sales plunged last year thanks to competition from online and big-box stores.
The couple in March decide to quit retail and go into partnership with a guiding business, Adventure Calls Outfitters, which is set to make $50,000 next year.
Waterhouse says main street business need a 'wow factor' in a tough market.
'This is something we learned the hard way,' he told The Journal.
Arkansas
The agricultural engineer grew up in the area, and moved back there and made plans to reverse urban decline in his part of the Mississippi River delta.
'It was a dying Main Street,' he told The Wall Street Journal. 'It was shocking to see how downtown became a ghost town.'
He's not alone.
Budding entrepreneurs across the US are opening businesses to revive shabby-looking main streets, which only decades ago were bustling hubs and a backbone to communities.
Harvey Williams Jr pours a glass of liquor at his distillery, which helped revive ailing Helena-West Helena, Arkansas.
America's main streets have had a tough few decades, as retail moves online and brick-and-mortar stores shutter.
Read More
Tiny NH town tears itself apart over 'subversive messaging' in LGBT murals painted on the side of a main street apartments: 'I don't want them here'
Some are surprise hits, but others cannot turn the tide against deep economic forces.
Williams spent $800,000 of his retirement savings plus $230,000 in bank loans to renovate 430 Cherry Street.
His Delta Dirt Distillery makes sweet-potato vodka using produce from his family's farm.
Locals questioned Williams's business sense when it opened in April 2021.
But they helped spread word of the place on social media.
His gamble paid off.
Sales last year hit $340,000 — 5 percent online, 95 percent from in-store shoppers and distributors across Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Tourists travel from afar to visit the store.
Some also take a tour of Williams' family's 86-acre vegetable farm, which his grandfather bought in 1949 with money from cotton and moonshine sales.
Williams says he looked beyond Helena-West Helena to sell his vodka far, wide and on the web.
'It's important for Main Street businesses to be diversified these days and not just to rely on the local population to succeed,' he says.
He plans to expand distribution, offer new products and open a pizzeria next door.
Joseph Whitfield, executive director of the Phillips County Chamber of Commerce, Senuke proxies says Williams lured business and visitors back to a struggling area that was losing population.
'Harvey has developed a blueprint on how to open a successful world-class business in rural America despite all the challenges he had to overcome,' says Whitfield.
Main streets in America's small towns and cities were once the lifeblood of local and mom-and-pop businesses.
But small local stores have for decades been losing sales as shoppers migrated online or to big-box stores and shopping malls.
The Delta Dirt Distillery makes sweet-potato vodka using produce from Williams' family's farm.
The distillery's sales hit $340,000 last year, mostly from in-store shoppers and distributors across Arkansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Brian and Jennifer Jones, center, took the plunge and moved from California to Virginia, where they opened a pizzeria and pub.
Read More
Chase abruptly shuts 7 branches in just one week - amid total closures of 14 from major US banks
Nowadays, many small town main streets are reeling, as industries close down and people move to find jobs.
They're often peppered with shuttered storefronts and ailing businesses.
For some entrepreneurs, this can be part of the attraction in chancing a new business.
Some have roots in the community and want to help turn it around.
Others are drawn to small-town charms, or the chance to create a dream business in a quaint location.
Jennifer Jones and her husband, Brian, are among those who took the plunge.
They owned a water-filtration company in northern California, but got worn down by the area's crime rates, taxes, high living costs and wildfires.
They moved to Big Stone Gap, a former coal town of some 5,300 people in Virginia's Appalachian Mountains, which they found on a vacation.
'We fell in love with the town, its beauty, and its people; they were so nice and welcoming,' Jones says.
'We felt like we stepped back in time 30 years ago.'
In April 2022, they bought a struggling vegan pizzeria and its building on an increasingly dilapidated Wood Avenue East.
The street was lined with failed and struggling stores in a town that had been losing residents since its coalfield closed in the 1990s.
They spent $223,000 of their own money and borrowed $187,000 more to create the Good Times Coal-Fired Pizza and Pub, which hosts live music.
Enthusiastic locals helped them lay floors, build the bar and paint the restaurant, while town manager Stephen Lawson and others promoted the venue on social media.
The shared effort breathed new life into an ailing community, said Lawson.
'The Joneses' pizzeria and restaurant has had a positive impact on our town and has inspired other entrepreneurs to set up shop on Wood Avenue,' he said.
Bill Waterhouse's struggling outdoors good store had to shutter, so he went into partnership with local guiding business Adventure Calls Outfitters.
'We are seeing more business activity and some population growth as people move here from all parts of the country in search of a better life.'
Bill Waterhouse, a former finance administrator, and his partner, Sonja Olbert, a home health aide, also spotted an opportunity for a local startup.
Four years ago, the hiking enthusiasts quit their jobs and left Massachusetts for Dansville, in upstate New York, to care for aging parents.
They lived near Leicester, a hamlet of 2,500 people, which had seen its main street suffer as the rust belt spread in the 1980s.
With a $25,000 local grant they in April 2020 opened Trail Otter, selling boating, hiking, and camping gear, at 134 Main Street.
It is close to Letchworth State Park and its trails, waterfalls and scenic gorge.
The pandemic was a good time to start a business for outdoor sports, and thanks to some clever marketing, they hit $40,000 in sales.
But sales plunged last year thanks to competition from online and big-box stores.
The couple in March decide to quit retail and go into partnership with a guiding business, Adventure Calls Outfitters, which is set to make $50,000 next year.
Waterhouse says main street business need a 'wow factor' in a tough market.
'This is something we learned the hard way,' he told The Journal.
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