Clowns And Friends Will Say Goodbye To Main Street
Lynndi Lockenour
A ceramic clown sits patiently in the window, waiting for the perfect buyer to come along, but according to owner Gwen Davis and her husband Jim, that buyer may never come. Clowns and Friends, located at 307 South Main, opened six years ago, but Davis said business has been going downhill since the tragedies of 9/11. “We used to have an influx of foreign travelers to this area, but it’s just not happening anymore,” she said.
Another major contributor to the decline in business for Davis is the nearby casino. “People gamble their disposable income down the drain,” she said. “Then they are left with nothing to go shopping on Main Street.” Like Cheri Brownlee of Crafty Ladies, Davis also mentioned the $50 kickback the casino offers tour bus drivers for dropping off tourists at the casino. “We can’t compete with that,” she said.
The price of gas is another factor for Davis when considering the decline in business. She said people are now forced to use their disposable income to pay high prices at the pump. “That little extra money each week goes into the gas tank and not toward shopping on Main Street,” she said. Davis herself is from Eureka and said she spends $60 a week commuting to and from the shop.
But the largest problem for Davis, more than gas, the casino and a decline in foreign travelers, is the lack of advertising conducted for Main Street. Davis says more needs to be done by the city with travel agents to get people into the area. “They talk about the hotels and the casinos, but they leave us out,” she said. “I think the city needs to do something about that.” Davis said the majority of shopping is conducted in strip malls as opposed to Main Street. “People still have this notion in their head that it’s too difficult to get down here, but that’s just not the case anymore.”
Davis said customers often compliment her on how neat the store is and ask how long she’s been here. “Six years and still no one knows about me,” she said. “I wish I could take it to the bank every time someone says that to me and maybe I wouldn’t be going out of business.”
Earlier this summer a meeting was conducted between Allan Williams, the City Administrator for the City of St. Charles, and the merchants on Main Street. At the meeting Davis said she felt as though Williams was just a bobbing head, nodding his head to everything the merchants said. “I think he was just saying what we wanted to hear and not actually listening to our concerns,” she said.
Davis loves the area and said she hates to be leaving. “My inheritance went into getting this place started,” she said, “and now it’s gone.” Davis is planning to keep the store open through late September if possible. Afterward, she will return to craft shows and do what is needed to make a living. “In the past when things have gotten bad, I’ve always gone back to the sewing machine,” she said.
Starting over is never easy, but that’s what Davis said she’ll have to do. “My dream is to eventually move into another store,” she said. “But reality may be different.” When she first opened for business, Davis said things were much better. “Now people are only coming in because everything is marked down so much,” she said. Davis said people complain because her items are too expensive. “They don’t have problem buying from Dillard’s or Famous Barr, but they think my stuff costs too much,” she said. “I can give people a break, but I can’t give it away.”
Davis said she really thinks the key to getting back the vitality on Main Street is advertising. “Most people find this place [Main Street] accidentally or were sent her by a friend in the area,” she said. Those who do see advertisements, Davis said, weren’t overly impressed. “I’ve had a few people say they saw a sign at a rest stop somewhere, but the advertisement itself isn’t overly impressive.”
The Monday after the Festival of the Little Hills, Jim said customers from Kansas City were asking why all the businesses on Main Street were closed. “I told them it was because everyone was worn out from the festival,” Jim said. “They replied by asking me ‘what festival?’ and had no idea it was even going on. Jim said this is proof that the advertising isn’t sufficient. “Our point is that apparently the festivals and activities aren’t being advertised enough if someone in our own state doesn’t know about them.”
Another problem, Davis said, is that merchants plan to make it on tourism alone. “That’s just not going to happen,” she said. “If we want Main Street back then we need to encourage locals to buy on Main Street as well as the tourists.” Many people tell Gwen and Jim how much they love the store, but she said they leave empty handed. “We aren’t a museum,” she said. “We are real people trying to make a living and the problem here is that people are use to Wal-Mart and Dollar Store prices and we just can’t compete with that.”
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