Heights merchants must learn to compete with Amazon

The recent Heights Music Hop was a great success. It showed how local merchants can provide the public with some services that Amazon cannot offer. Such a success should inspire Hop organizers to expand the concept on future occasions.

There are not enough promotional events for local merchants in Cleveland Heights or in University Heights. It did take a lot of work to organize the Hop. It might not be practical to have frequent Hops. But less ambitious events in commercial districts certainly could be staged on multiple occasions.

More retail shops should have stayed open at night during the Hop. This was a missed opportunity. Other festive occasions, such as the original Coventry Street Fair in the 1980s, proved there are commercial benefits from such additional activity. Open retail stores would have been good advertising. Visitors would have seen the inside of stores and not just viewed them through windows. That might have inspired some of them where to do their shopping on future occasions.

Good attendance at the Hop was not prevented by parking problems. A lesson should be learned from that. Shoppers at malls are used to walking considerable distances to stores from their parked cars. The more someone wants to reach a location, the further away they are willing to park. There already may be an ample supply of free parking in city lots and on side streets. Maintaining such free parking should be a city goal.

In the age of Amazon, it is incredibly important that retail stores both in Cleveland Heights and in University Heights learn how to compete. The Hop proved how promotional events could help them. It now is up to merchants and those who manage Special Improvement Districts in the commercial areas to follow up and stage more promotions.

Some store owners have employees who are unwilling to work late hours. Others are unwilling themselves to work late hours. But their failure to compete with Amazon by participating in night events might end up showing them how the commercial market can be unforgiving. That lack of forgiveness could doom some of their businesses, which would be a shame.