[Above: The Augusta Road Business Association’s Holiday Open House]
For the Augusta Road Business Association’s 80 members, life on the road has its rewards
Tiby Weinstein remembers when the Augusta Road Business Association was a handful of shopkeepers sitting around talking about “traffic lights and things like that.”
“We flopped around for 20 years,” said Weinstein, who next year marks 30 years as owner of Gage’s stationery and gift store on Augusta Road, 23 years at Capers Place and the last six at Lewis Plaza.
“There were six of us who paid dues year-in, year-out, but there was no sugar for the nickel. We just believed in it.”
It is a far different story today. From 10 members three years ago, ARBA has grown to 80 along the stretch of Augusta Road with its storied past as Greenville’s premier commercial and elegant residential neighborhood link in and out of downtown.
Its “Only on Augusta” promotions link yesteryear with today’s “upscale culture, commitment to heritage and rare blend of locally owned businesses side-by-side with nationally acclaimed franchises, (that) make life on the road for generations of families a truly unique experience.”
The turning point came in the summer of 2011 when ARBA cobbled together enough members at $225 a year to hire a marketing and public relations consultant, Clair Ray, the “just me” of Clair Ray Creative Marketing.
“I give Clair Ray great credit for shepherding the process,” Weinstein said. “One of the things we struggled with for years and years and years is that you don’t have time to run your business and champion an organization.”
Although not near where it wants to be, ARBA created the kind of neighborhood association of retail and service merchants that proponents of buying local say is critical to keeping independent and locally owned stores alive against the onslaught of online and box-store shopping.
“What ARBA has tried to do is ensure the charm of Augusta Road stays, to get the community involved and keep it going for people to come from other areas to enjoy Augusta Road,” Ray said.
It sponsors two open houses a year, one to start the summer and one at the beginning of the holiday season, to bring neighbors and outsiders to the shopping plazas and stand-alone stores with festive entertainment and discounts. The third annual Holiday Open House was held Sunday.
There are 350 businesses along the roughly three miles from Augusta Road and Dunbar Street to the far end where ARBA is anchored by The Pickwick, a family-owned independent pharmacy and soda fountain that has been a Greenville fixture since 1947.
The current chairman of the ARBA board is Kelly Odum. He and his brother Chad are the third-generation owners of The Pickwick.
The main shipping centers are Lewis Plaza, Capers Place, Augusta Village, McDaniel Village and Augusta Common. “There are free-standing businesses or smaller strip areas, and you have businesses off the side streets,” Ray said.
While Ray said existing members of the association have “done a phenomenal job” and new members are joining, there are shopkeepers who have declined to join yet “are still reaping the benefits.”
For example, she said, “during the holiday open houses, there are retail businesses who are not members and do not participate but on that Sunday … they have their doors open ready to sell. We can’t force them to not open their doors.”
To Weinstein of Gage’s, “it’s a sin that every single business isn’t a member” – including property owners who have an interest in keeping their properties rented with healthy businesses.
