Downtown stores outdo Amazon.com in local support
By Chuck Stinnett, Courier Press, Posted April 21, 2012 at 3:45 p.m., updated April 21, 2012 at 3:45 p.m.Some of my downtown business friends were stung by a comment here last week concerning the ever-quickening changes in retailing.
My commentary was inspired by a reader urging, in part, for someone to bring more stores downtown.
To be sure, someone has been trying. For more than 25 years, the Downtown Henderson Project — with support from the city, county, local banks and DHP members and volunteers — has worked earnestly to encourage property owners to keep buildings in good and historically restored condition (such as by offering low-interest loans for facade renovation and city tax abatements for building upgrades) as well as to recruit new businesses and promote activities to draw people downtown.
But as I noted, the momentum in retailing over the past 50 years has shifted from downtowns to suburban shopping centers to malls to big-box stores and now to online retailers such as Amazon.com.
