Downtown Retail to Open Late to Promote Local Shopping During the Holidays

Downtown retailers invite residents to visit downtown for all of their holiday shopping needs with over 31 retail stores to choose from.  The retailers rallied together during the most recent meeting of Merchants of Historic Downtown Harrisonburg to present a united retail front.

All of the following members will be open until at least 7pm on Fridays to give residents an opportunity to shop downtown after work.

1. Oasis
2. You Made It
3. The Yellow Button
4. Downtown Fine Furniture
5. Polished
6. James McHone Jewelers
7. Laughing Dog
8. On The Turtles Back
9. Wonder
10. Ragtime Fabrics
11. Downtown Wine & Gourmet
12. Shenandoah Bicycle Company

What better way to spend a Friday evening than to stroll through our ever expanding Downtown for Holiday shopping and then enjoy a fine meal with friends and family at one of over 25 unique and locally owned restaurants.

In this down economy shopping locally supports our Historic Downtown Community.  Buying from your neighbors means keeping your money local all while exploring the most unique gifts available.

Polished, Melanie Woodard’s Silver Bullet

Posted by Lisa N. Ha

Some people get balloons and a greeting card stuffed with cash when they graduate from high school. Or a trip to the beach, courtesy of Mom and Dad. Valley native Melanie Woodard received a copy of How to Start Your Own Business from her aunt – and she says it was just what she wanted.

Years later that how-to guide is finally getting use. This month Woodard will open her first business. Housed on West Water Street adjacent to the parking deck, Polished will specialize in sterling silver jewelry pieces that exemplify “modern, elegant and timeless” qualities. The shop will take up 620 square feet of a building being renovated to also accommodate a new men’s clothing store and studio and office space for DIGICO, a video production company.

JMU Students Market Downtown Businesses Online

Two teams of marketing students from JMU’s College of Business partnered with downtown businesses to compete in the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge.

The team of Jessica Jacklin (team captain), Stephanie Scheper and Nicole Thornton worked with with James McHone Jewelry. Nancy Woody (team captain), Kye Swenson and Tim Seher partnered with Gentry Photography.

Using a $200 voucher from Google, the teams designed and executed a three-week AdWords campaign for each business. Their results netted them a spot in the top 50 of some 2,100 teams from 57 countries. Another JMU team was named the winner of the Americas region.

Downtown Dominates DNR “Best of the Valley” Awards

Once again, Daily News-Record readers have shown their overwhelming support of downtown Harrisonburg shops, restaurants and other businesses with their votes in the annual “Best of the Valley” survey. Running away with the most honors is Clementine with EIGHT awards, including best renovation and best place to be seen. Harrisonburg Farmers’ Market made its first appearance on the list as the best place to take visitors, likely aided by its new location under the Turner pavilion constructed since the last poll.

Some favorites, like the Little Grill Collective, James McHone Jewelry, and Jess’ Quick Lunch, retained their titles as best vegetarian/breakfast, jeweler, and cheap eats, respectively, while the Artful Dodger showed its expanding versatility by winning the best dancing and best karaoke titles. Downtown services also got a shout out on this year’s list, with the Studio winning best salon and the Beauty Spa taking best day spa. Congratulations to other downtown businesses listed below – 16 in total!

Similar to last year, downtown as a whole won both accolades and criticism, with voters choosing downtown revitalization as the best use of taxpayer money and listing downtown among their favorite part of Harrisonburg, while displaying a lack of fondness for our new blue and yellow wayfinding signs as their least favorite part about the ‘burg.

DNR’s “Best of the Valley” Winners: Downtown Highlights

Cheap Eats
Jess’ Quick Lunch

Vegetarian
The Little Grill Collective

French fries
Dave’s

Late-night eats
Dave’s

Coffee
Shank’s

Drink specials
Clementine Café

Best atmosphere
Clementine Café

Place to take your family
Clementine Café

Place to be seen
Clementine Café

Place to sit and read
Earth and Tea Café

Outdoor dining
Dave’s

Place to blow your diet
Kline’s Dairy Bar

Place to take a date
Clementine Café

Downtown restaurant
Clementine Café

Best appetizers
Clementine Café

Best breakfast
The Little Grill Collective

Salon
The Studio

Day Spa
The Beauty Spa

Wine shop
Downtown Wine & Gourmet

Jeweler
James McHone

Best dancing
Artful Dodger

Best entertainment value
Court Square Theater

Best cheap date
Kline’s Dairy Bar

Karaoke
Artful Dodger

Museum
Harrisonburg Children’s Museum

Best place to take visitors
Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market

Best renovation
Clementine Café

Best use of taxpayer money
Downtown revitalization

Best way to spend a Saturday morning
Farmer’s market (Dayton, Shenandoah and Harrisonburg)

Best place to propose
Joshua Wilton House

Downtown Window Decorating Contest Winners Announced

Downtown merchants have decked the halls for another season of holiday window shopping. Winners of this year’s contests are:

1st place: Blue Ridge Florist
2nd place: Laughing Dog Productions
3rd place: James McHone Jewelry
Most Creative: Salon 11
Most Festive: Granny LongLegs
Best Use of Merchandise: Glen’s Fair Price Store

Each year the merchants of historic downtown Harrisonburg continue the classic tradition of trimming their window displays with garlands, lights and Christmas scenes for what used to be sidewalks full of shoppers. To help bring back those sidewalks full of hustle and bustle, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance has added an incentive to encourage downtown shopping.

Shoppers Still Have Time to Enter the Window Wonderland Contest

With the help of the downtown merchants, HDR filled a vacant storefront window across the street from Dave’s Taverna with gifts and gift certificates – a total value of over $1,300! Any shopper who visits at least half of the featured businesses and fills out one of the entry forms posted at the window can enter into a drawing to win everything in the window. “This was just another way to increase foot traffic in our downtown businesses” says Kris Ludwig, special events manager for HDR, who got the idea from this year’s National Main Street conference, “It also gives our window winners even more exposure for their beautiful displays.”

The final drawing for the window giveaway is December 15th at the Hardesty Higgins House.