I have lived in Fannin County my entire life. I can remember back to the good old days when the downtown businesses relied on the support of the residents of Fannin County for their livelihood and the majority of these businesses did not close the doors at 5:00pm. The majority of them were closed on Wednesdays or half a day Wednesday but only because circumstances warranted it. During those days all of the banks were closed on Wednesdays and people couldn't get cash or have their checks cashed(this was before everyone had credit and debit cards) and most of the residents and business owners attended many of the church services that took place on Wednesday night (not many people out shopping during church hours). My problem with the businesses downtown is that they cry about business being bad and that tourism is down yet they do not try to reach local customers of the county. A lot of these customers have full time jobs, usually out of town, and do not make it into town until after five. The shops are closed and a lot of the restuarants are closed and so we have to go out of town!!! They make it hard to buy local like they are always chanting!!!

Dean Cant you read the blogs we need to change if your open seven days a week thats great. but thats not the case of most businesses. New Years day of this year the town was loaded with tourists and all the shops were closed. At my place thats all I heard all day why are they closed.

This past Sunday the town was crawling with tourists looking to spend money. A few shops were open but not many!

Im not trying to mind your business just trying to help our small town survive.

I would still like to know where the empty stores are. And I can't blame shop owners for closing New Years Day.

Dean, under normal circumstances I would totally agree with you...small business owners need time off but you have a business that is smack dab in the middle of a tourist mecca and tourists are usually on vacation during the holidays. They are looking for something to do and have money to spend. So, how to compromise?

I don't know if anyone from the business association has consider doing this but how about contacting the business associations from other tourist communities to "pick their brains" about what they have done to be successful.

I wish you much success.

Some really good, helpful suggestions rolling in here. There is definitely a great love going on here for our little town.

I was open New Year's Day---closed X-mas and Thanksgiving. Great times with the family. New Year's Day opening was a huge success, and helped with getting through the very slow month of January. I hope this will help other businesses next year. Also, we stayed open on Wednesdays the last two weeks in December. Business was unreal. Glad we did it.

There are many extremely qualified people in this area (out of work) who would love to help you out when you need time off, hours after 5.
I train several people throughout the year for this very reason. They are just a phone call away. Sure has made my life easier, and keeps patrons coming back knowing they can count on you being open!

That's a great business attitute. Also, paying someone at least minimum wage for helping you stay open is not going to break the bank, but could bring you unexpected income.

Is it my imagination, but did this one person's negative reply put an end to this very important exchange of ideas because they had no interest in what
was happening downtown and just wanted to know what was going on in Blue Ridge? Roses's is having a big sale!!!! I love Roses.

I wouldn't call most of these posts on this thread as "very important exchanges of ideas" considering this thread has been up on the boards for several days and very little posts have had any impact. Plus there are hardly any posts at all. Then you seem to take a jab at Roses and you actually come across as smug....no offense mam.

I think the post stop because we are beating a dead horse and I also love Roses.

Agreed. Other than saying that stores should open more hours over and over not much else came out. I think we all agree and hope they do open more hours at least during busy period.
I will continue supporting the local stores whether they open more or not.
I'm not so sure about Rose but I love Ingles chicken salad