There is a Blue Ridge Business Association. The web address is:
Best of Blue Ridge - the best mountain town in North Georgia

For the business owners doing all the complaining, all you needed to do was go to a nearby business or bank and ask about the Blue Ridge Business Association!! Have you met your fellow business owners?

The City of Blue Ridge in the past, has not done much to promote or enrich the downtown area except to constantly tear up the East Main street and leaving it a mess. This has been going on for 10 years on East Main and I do have a business on it. Fannin County does nothing to support the city. Just look at recent events regarding the Library and Arts Association. We need to re-elect a whole new county commission!!

We finally got a whole new City Council and look forward to seeing some major improvements (the streetscape project). We also finally got beer and wine licensing to attract more restaurants. The new mayor and council have a lot of great ideas.

My shop is run by my wife and many others are family owned. We and some of the other owners can not afford to hire employees just so we can take a day off. By the way it is 2:30 pm on Thursday and not one of the people complaining or anyone else has set foot in my shop since it opened today. In the meantime my gas heat and electricity are running full bore.

This is the time of year when many shops close to remodel or take a much needed vacation. It is a slower time regardless of what you say. I have lived downtown for ten years and see East Main everyday!!

We look for great things to happen in the downtown area and surely the later hours will come.

We and some other shops have tried staying open later on several occasions, and there was not enough business to support the longer hours at that time.

Thank you,

Wildman

It isn't the business owners doing all the complaining. Our patrons are trying to help us out. listen to them---their opinions are valuable.

Wildman,

Are you the owner of the tobacco shop in East Main? Just curious. Been past it a million times, but have not been there.

Bud

No, I am not the owner of the Tobacco shop. The owner is a good guy, but a lot of people do not realize he is a wholesale tobacco shop only. His building is for sale.

Thanks,

Wildman

We do listen to our patrons. We are closed on Wednesday, traditionally the slowest business day of the week. Most understand why we close one day a week, unless weather conditions dictate otherwise!! I wish I could afford to be open 7 days a week, but my wife does need a day off!!!

Thanks,

Wildman

Wildman,

I think everyone who has posted comments regarding the downtown business situation is very sympathetic to the challenges the business owners face.
You do need time off and are subject to the ebbs and flows of the tourist season. Your business may be packed one day but as you stated, " it is 2:30 pm on Thursday and not one of the people complaining or anyone else has set foot in my shop since it opened today. In the meantime my gas heat and electricity are running full bore."

Yes, January is a great time to slow down, do repairs, updates to your stores, take a well deserved vacation, etc.
But, I think most patrons of the downtown area would just like to have a consistent schedule of store open/close hours. If all or most of the stores closed at the same time each week or had the same extended hours - say - on the weekend nights, then patrons could plan their trips into town accordingly. And yes, we fully realize that with only the owners manning the store, if an emergency arises, the store has to close.

I hope you will get support for your endeavors from the "town fathers," the Chamber of Commerce and anyone else whose job it is to make Fannin county successful.

We do try to maintain a set schedule. Closed on Wednesday, which is what most shops have done. Also, if you read my original post the business is not here yet, to support evening hours. Several of us have even organized and advertised to try later hours and still did not have the sales to maintain the longer hours.

Thanks,

Wildman

You certainly know the situation better than I and I commend for sticking it out...Hopefully this coming spring/summer 2010 will show an increase in the number of folks frequenting the downtown area, now that restaurants are serving beer and wine. Their increase in business may spill over to retail. Nothing worth having ever comes easy, does it?

Thanks for the kind words. We are certainly looking forward to the coming year.

The new mayor of Blue Ridge, Donna Whitner is a local business owner and is looking forward to improving the downtown business district along with promoting Blue Ridge as a vacation destination and also a great place to live.

Thanks again,

Wildman

Yeah I was mainly staying out of it but I am glad you came on Wildman and spoke up for some of the Businesses down town. The Owners of those businesses were sure taking a beating in this thread. As I was following a long I was thinking to myself that I understood where the ones calling for the shops to stay open longer and on Wednesdays were coming from. But I know 3 people really well who have shops down town and have had them down there for years.

There are always 2 sides to the story and NOT all shops are created equal. LOL Meaning you cannot lump every shop together down town and you also need to do your home work some before you make it look like the Shop Owners are just being fools and doing nothing but whining and complaining all the time.

Everyone one of my friends who have shops down town have tried everything under the Sun to generate business...Including staying open late in to the Evenings and that experiment failed each of them because the local folks were not coming in to the shops. Well wouldn't you know it...but the Public who are implying that it's just common sense for the Shop Owners to solve their problems by simply altering their hours to stay open longer...were no where to be found in their shops.

You have to remember that these shops have to have a steady flow during the extended hours some of you are asking for. If they do not get that flow they cannot afford to stay open. They cannot just remain open with little to no flow at all until some of you decide you want to pop in the car and take a gander down town. That is not how it works. If all the shops were to do that just so some of you can come and go when you get that itch then you will have more of those shops that are remaining there finding themselves out of business.

So please take it easy on some of the Shop Owners. They are not all complaining fools that lack the so-called Business 101 education someone smartly referred to. These folks would like nothing but to get the amount of "Steady" (Key Word there) Local and Tourists folk to keep coming on out on regular basis. If you the Public all did your part on a regular basis and were able to show the Shop Owners there is a true and honest need for them to stay open longer...They would. They want to make money. They enjoy being able to put food on their tables. But they will not be able to keep doing that if they took a stab at extending their hours and no one showed up.

Bad business when the Bills are more than what you are bringing in.