[OMS_MANAGERS] VCB Welcome Center-retail competition with private sector

[Jamie Stickel]

Chuck  -

Congratulations on having a successful visitor welcoming center, that's tremendous!

Think about your predicament this way (I'm only using this example because it's a real example that I had to deal with from Canby). A business owner, a restaurant/wine bar, called to complain that another business owner, a café, has gotten their liquor permit and has started to sell wine and is advertising Wine Wednesdays. The first place wanted me to "do something", because wine was her thing. Obviously I told her that I wouldn't be calling the other business owner. I think sometimes it's easy to forget that a little competition is a good thing!

Obviously the Welcome Center is not actively trying to take business away from other businesses in Bend. In fact, although I have never been to your Welcome Center, I would imagine that the people who work there encourage visitors to go out into the downtown to find things that they may not have, or that may be out of stock. When I went to the Welcome Center website I noticed t-shirts hanging on the wall in the picture. If they were out of a size, or didn't have a specific color and it was carried at a downtown business, the person working that day would most likely say, "We don't have a medium in pink, let me call over to The Woman's Store and see if they have it." The Welcome Center should give people a taste of what the downtown businesses have, and be the connector to those businesses. If you can be a one-stop shop for some people, that's ok too. It takes all of those different experiences to get people to come back!

I think it's good to be attentive that you could be competing, but if the Welcome Center is also being that connector to the other businesses and providing information and maps, then you're fine.

Sincerely,

Jamie Stickel
Main Street Manager
City of Canby
111 NW 2nd Avenue l PO Box 930
Canby, Oregon 97013
Phone: 503-266-0772
Stickelj at ci.canby.or.us<mailto:Stickelj at ci.canby.or.us>

Main Street and Economic Development Websites:
[Description: cid:image002.png at 01CD431D.B361B510]<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canby-Main-Street/121560701211749> [Description: cid:image003.png at 01CD431D.B361B510] <http://www.canbymainstreet.com/> [Description: cid:image004.png at 01CD431D.B361B510] <http://www.canbybusiness.com/>


From: OMS_MANAGERS [mailto:oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Chuck Arnold
Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 10:16 AM
To: 'Oregon Main Street program managers'
Subject: [OMS_MANAGERS] VCB Welcome Center-retail competition with private sector

Our VCB has been tremendously successful. We take a lot of pride and benefit from their success as I do personally as a member of their Board.

The VCB has a welcome center in our downtown. (http://www.visitbend.com/About-Us/Welcome-Center/) In the last 4 years, the welcome center has really ramped up their retail sales expanding their offerings beyond t-shirts and pencils. They now have a dedicated retail area of a few hundred square feet that sees beyond $100,000/year in sales.

While I am encouraged by the success, the welcome center is a nonprofit that now competes heavily with several of our retailers. There is overlap of product and though it's only speculative, it would seem that it is affecting the market share of private sector business sales.

Has anyone run into this issue? Any advice?

Chuck Arnold
Downtown Bend Business Association
A nonprofit working to keep Downtown Bend vibrant
www.DowntownBend.org<http://www.DowntownBend.org>
https://www.facebook.com/downtownbend
(541) 788-3628

Upcoming Events:
February 7-First Friday Art Walk





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