Tradition of First Friday begins in downtown area

Bloomington has just added one more reason to thank goodness it's Friday -- at least the first Friday of every month. These Fridays, many businesses in the downtown area are keeping their doors open later and offering promotional deals and events. Downtown Bloomington Inc. first organized this event last month, which is now being called First Friday. \n"It's a grassroots way for stores to promote each other and to promote specials in their stores and let people know what downtown has to offer," said Talisha Coppock, executive director of Downtown Bloomington Inc.\nThe idea came from seeing other communities' First Friday. However, most of those communities focused on art. Downtown Bloomington Inc. decided instead to use First Friday as "a way to feature art as well as shops and restaurants and services," Coppock said.\nAbout 30 businesses were involved with Bloomington's inaugural First Friday in September, but that number is growing. In October, about 42 businesses will be involved, which is approximately 10 percent of the businesses in the downtown area. The company expects the number of participants to continue to grow in the future.\n"It's just getting started so people can still call in and participate," Coppock said. "I think this is so flexible that they can tailor it to their business. There's no cost for them to participate."\nJaime Sweany, owner of Wandering Turtle Art Gallery & Gifts, said she saw this as an opportunity to connect with customers who would not otherwise be able to visit her art gallery and gift shop.\n"It's a really good opportunity for people in classes who can't make it down here during the day to see how many very cool shops there are," Sweany said. "I'm always hearing how cool people find my shop and never knew about it before … (because) I'm not open and retailers aren't open that much in the evening." \nFor October's First Friday, Sweany will hold a food and drink reception and a "Meet the Artist" with Maria Morris. She said she hopes that eventually the program will promote enough business in the evenings that businesses will be able to sustain themselves by staying open later.\nEach First Friday, businesses will have green and white balloons to let shoppers know they are participating, and shoppers can view the promotions being offered on www.downtownbloomington.com. Additionally, shoppers can go online to get a VIP card, which can be used at different stores for special promotions and registers them for a $50 gift certificate. \nThere will also be a Gallery Walk during October's First Friday, which will feature eight galleries in addition to store promotions. Bloomington Transit will offer free bus rides and a hidden paper mâché fish will result in a gift certificate for the finder. \nMost of the events seem to be centered on promoting awareness of downtown rather than an attempt at personal profit.\n"We think it's important to be a part of the downtown community -- to offer benefits to the shoppers downtown," said Jessica Merritt, barrista at Theater Café. "We just hope to bring more people downtown. I think we're lucky to have such a diverse, booming downtown and anything to bring more people downtown is our goal." \nCoppock said this goal is already beginning to be met as the businesses probably saw some new faces. Although no dramatic differences are being made in business profits, the results have been positive.\n"(The result has been) shoppers seeing additional benefit to shopping downtown. Some of the stores needed a fall promotion," Coppock said. "So, stores like it, customers like it and we like it"