Eureka Springs keeping shops open

Town feels recession, still draws customers

Dina Landis’ runs her shop, Small World, seven days a week in downtown Eureka Springs.
Dina Landis’ runs her shop, Small World, seven days a week in downtown Eureka Springs.

— At the malls, the big-box discount stores and the electronics retailers, Black Friday specials drew throngs of early-morning shoppers seeking the best deals on a limited number of “door-buster” deals in a limited amount of time.

Some retailers in downtown Eureka Springs had Black Friday sales, too, though not at 5 a.m.

“We’re not that desperate,” said Dina Landis, who runs the Small World gift shop. “Eureka’s kind of laid back. But it’s definitely a busy weekend.”

Art, dining, lodging and entertainment are the mainstays in the small Carroll County city whose entire downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places. But retailing - absent the chain stores that dominate the business - is a key piece of the city’s economy.

“We have interesting boutiques and galleries. The merchandise is just different from the malls. And you get individual help from the sales clerks,” said Kathie Gustin, owner of Impressions, a women’s clothing and accessories boutique. A Eureka Springs shop owner since 1976, starting first with a gift shop, “I’m a fixture here,” she said.

Gustin intends to generate some buzz about her shop on Saturday with live models in her display window.

On a warm afternoon, the streets and sidewalks downtown were busy with slowmoving vehicles and pedestrians. Unlike many small-city downtown districts, few of the storefronts are vacant.

Inside a 400-square-foot shop called For Bare Feet Originals, Sue Marvin manages a business that sells, well, mostly socks. All American-made. Lots of college and professional sports brands. Some with humorous lettering (Dave’s Sock, Dave’s Other Sock).

Marvin said she’s had customers buy 20 pairs at a time.

A 35-year veteran of Eureka Springs retailing, the former teacher said the Christmas shopping season so far has been “excellent,” but concedes, “We went into the season expecting the worst.” She also owns Gift Corner, a shop across the street from the sock outlet.

Her 2009 summation: “Not the best year we’ve ever had.”

To help generate some buzz for their village, the Eureka Springs Downtown Network this year is sponsoring acontest that will award some lucky or enterprising shopper a display window full ofmerchandise.

The goods, displayed in a window across from the courthouse, are from 23 merchants throughout downtown Eureka Springs. Contestants, if they’re playing to win, will visit each of the stores with a displayed item, find the actual prices and submit their entry.

Or, they could just guess and hope for the best, like playing the lottery. If more than one entry is correct, a winner will be drawn from the pool.

Carol Friesen has run Tummy Ticklers Kitchen Shop for 30 years, five at her current location across from the courthouse. She sells unusual kitchen gadgetry, more than 20 specialty coffees including Blueberry Cobbler, German Chocolate Cake and Sumatran Golden Mandehline Viennese Roast and 20 teas including China Black Keemun, English Breakfastand Formosa Oolong.

She moved to Eureka Springs from Oklahoma after having visited numerous times.

“You know, you just end up where you’re supposed to be,” she said, though she’s moved her shop four times over the years.

On the day Friesen was interviewed, she’d had shoppers in her store from Canada and San Diego. And in the past few weeks, she said, shoppers from Austria, Brazil, England, Mexico and Latvia had visited her store. Her favorite recent sale, she said, was grapefruit spoons to the Latvian guy.

“Every day is fun in Eureka Springs, for one reason or another,” she said.

Gustin, at the women’s apparel shop, said most of her customers come from within a day’s drive, including Kansas City, Tulsa, Oklahoma City,Dallas and Little Rock, as well as from the region, particularly Bella Vista, Rogers and Fayetteville.

At Tinmaker & Glitz, owner Daniel Larmay said the economy hasn’t been kind to the shop he opened in June 2007 year. He turns century-old tin ceiling tiles into artwork.

“The economy has slowed down. There is a difference,”he said.

He and partner Sue Glave, who does jewelry and accessories, have cut expenses, reverting to an old-fashioned credit and debit card manual-slide device rather than the electronic version, with its fees.

Larmay even had the water shut off to save money. He brings water-filled containers from home for drinking, hand-washing and other necessities.

“Our convenience is taken away,” he said. Rent costshim several hundred dollars a month.

Mike Klecha, owner of Judge Roy Bean’s Old Time Photos and Weddings, as well as Glitzees, a gift and collectibles shop, said the sluggish economy has focused merchants on providing better customer service.

“There’s only one thing in town that brings in money, and that’s tourism,” he said. “I feel like this [economy] is kind of a gut check for merchants.”

Over the past two decades, he said, the town of about 2,400 likely has lost some tourist visits as gambling venues have sprouted or expanded in nearby Oklahoma.

But despite continued economic problems, he said, people still want to have some fun.

“People want to do a little escape, they escape to Eureka,” he said. “As a town of our size, we’re rocking.” To contact this reporter:

spainter@arkansasonline.com

Business, Pages 73 on 11/29/2009

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