Belt tightening often part of downtown revitalization

St. Charles' venerable Blue Goose Super Market, a downtown fixture for decades, is moving. The good news is that the store isn't going far, moving just two and-one half blocks south where it will continue to be a downtown anchor.

"We're moving," says Dave Lencioni, an owner and president of Blue Goose Super Market, Inc., "because we sit on a prime piece of riverfront property that makes (downtown revitalization) work."

Although the new Blue Goose - open at its present spot until the move - will be 50 percent larger, providing additional space for such vital departments as bakery, frozen foods, deli and produce, the new store won't open until January. In the meantime, business is down.

"The peak of the reconstruction was June. Our four-week totals (that month) were down about 10 percent," Lencioni says. More recently, losses have been cut in half - which still leaves sales and transactions down about five percent.

To cope, "We've had to tighten our belts," Lencioni says. "My sister and I and our general manager have taken sizable pay cuts, and we've asked employees to give back hours."

The Blue Goose will make it. Things look reasonably good at The Wine Exchange, too, even though Owner Mike Frasier says his wine store is at "ground zero" of the reconstruction effort.

Frasier has resources that allow him to take a longer view of the reconstruction. "I don't rely on profits to pay the mortgage," he says. "Otherwise I'd be yelling and screaming."

Still, Frasier worries - about customer worries about nails and tires. "It's a driveway decision (by each customer) about going through a construction site to buy wine," he says. "There's fear about the nail in the tire, so maybe they go to Binney's instead. Pretty soon, that's where they shop."

There is help available for business owners in downtown St. Charles - and in downtown Elgin, whose merchants shared their coping strategies in last week's column. Elgin's Downtown Neighborhood Association sponsors events designed to draw people downtown, sends a nicely promotional e-newsletter that highlights activities and provides some co-op marketing opportunities.

"We bring people downtown," says new DNA Executive Director Tonya Hudson, on the job just 10 days when we talked. But, she adds, merchants "have to be creative and take responsibility to find new ways to market to their customers."

The Downtown St. Charles Partnership is an event sponsor as well, but Executive Director David Richards is quick to list additional services the partnership provides. "Business owners are so focused on keeping their doors open that we have to help them with the little things," Richards says.

Help includes a Construction Zone Tool Kit, a how-to-survive-the construction binder that includes phone numbers of people and departments to call. In addition, Richards, who also is a St. Charles alderman, and his staff will help local businesses create and distribute news releases, and will create ads for businesses hoping to pull people downtown.

JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.