The Eye wandered downtown yesterday to take in the Bend Summer Festival. There was a huge crowd – of exhibitors, that is, who seemed to outnumber the festival-goers.
I don’t have the official numbers yet but attendance at this year’s event seemed to be the thinnest I’ve seen in years, in spite of perfect weather and lots of attractions, including a wide variety of musical entertainment.
If our eyeball estimate was right, it doesn’t bode well for a successful summer tourism season. The local visitor industry, hurting after a pitiful winter season, was hoping to play catch-up once the warm weather arrived.
Veteran downtown businessman Duncan McGeary has written repeatedly on his blog that more people seem to be walking into his shop this year, but they’re not buying as much. Writing today about his Summer Festival experience, he says: “I got about 156 people in the door, less than the 200 I estimated. It
may have been more, though, because it was too busy to keep an accurate
count. Didn’t seem very busy outside to me, but really, I couldn’t tell
from the small space I can scan.”
McGeary also has been saying all year that he sees a lot more empty parking spaces downtown than he used to. My own experience doesn’t bear this out; it seems I always have to drive around the block three or four times before I score a downtown parking space. But Dunc has more savvy about such matters, so I’ll yield to his judgment.
The area that seems to be hurting more than downtown is the Old Mill District. I can find a parking space almost anyplace I want there at any time of day. A couple years ago I’d often have to park on the upper terrace (where the office buildings are) and walk down to the shops.
Taking a wild guess here, I’d say that Bend in the bubble years built a lot more retail than there was any solid demand for. Locals never had enough money to sustain all those shops, even during the boom, but tourist dollars kept them afloat. And now the locals are broke, the tourists have stopped coming in such numbers, and those who do come don’t have as much to spend.
Prediction: There’s going to be a big shakeout, and downtown is going to fare better than the Old Mill District or other newer shopping centers like the Forum or Cascade Village. The reason: its pedestrian-friendly scale and feel.
Downtown provides a pleasant strolling-and-browsing experience. There are lots of stores and restaurants and coffee shops packed close together; you can walk a block and visit six of them. The Old Mill Shops try to offer a similar experience but don’t quite make it; the stores are too big and too spread-out. The Forum and Cascade Village don’t even come close; they’re basically old-fashioned enclosed malls with the roof taken off.
Another problem: The Old Mill seems to contain nothing but women’s clothing stores. Aside from the movies, the restaurants and the Orvis shop, I can’t think of any reason a man would go there – unless he was dragged along by his wife.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.
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Old Mill will hurt the most, second will be downtown, and third will be North Bend. People are getting back to what life is really all about. Living by the basics…family, food, and God. Old Mill and Downtown may be fun to browse, but it is all over the top.
REI is the main reason I go to OM. It’s still the best all around outdoor shop for families. (and men)
Our “summer” weather isn’t going to help either the tourist business or (what’s left of) the real estate business either. Any Californian visiting Bend for the first time this month is gonna say to himself: “WTF??? I drove 600 miles to freeze my ass off in the middle of nowhere?”
The whole COUNTRY built a lot more retail than was needed. Once the house/ATM stopped spitting out money, spending behaved accordingly. That’s why we have ghost malls all over the country (google dead mall – it’s interesting).
As a vendor of Summerfest, I have to say, I must have been lucky, I had a very successful show despite the economy. I recognize there is not always a way to support local business’ but, as so many bumpers around Bend boast “make local habit” it is now more than ever important to do that. I know that some of the national chain retailers have closed and left Bend, but most of them will probably be here when the economy finally turns.
Did we really need to zoom in locally to state the same actions that are not only happening in Bend, but in the majority of the world. Retail is hurting, this I know. I find myself left with a big question for “The Eye.” You quoted a downtown merchant who said he had good foot traffic, and you as well talked about having to circle for a parking spot. A vendor commented “I had a very successful show despite the economy.” Where is the facts that you used to come to your conclusion? I also would find it hard to believe that any retailer was having success in this economy but completely missed what made you conclude the same. With all of your gloom and doom blogs about Bend, every day must be a challenge. That’s the real shame.
I agree Nate! The Wandering Eye needs to put on its beer goggles. Enjoy what Bend does have to offer.
We’ve got the objective statistics of Airport passengers, and hotel receipts. We can count the stores coming and going.
Or we can try to get a firm reading from retail stores on how they are doing, and how they perceive the tourist season.
But since stores are pretty leery of giving out such info, we have to depend on very subjective observations.
I think HBM is more right than wrong here. I don’t think we’re having the big tourist season we were expecting….