By Carolyn Grodinsky, Marketing and Events Coordinator
Montpelier Alive
I especially enjoy our downtown during the holiday season - the beautifully decorated historic buildings, the diversity of our downtown stores, the unique products they offer, and the delicious foods at cafes, restaurants, and bakeries to stay warm and visit with friends. Additionally just outside downtown, shoppers can enjoy skiing, sledding, hiking… in our incredible parks and outdoor spaces. Topping off this season, parking is FREE, up to two hours, through Christmas eve!
We celebrate this holiday season with our families and friends with gifts, meals, and good cheer. This season is likewise a time to celebrate and support our City’s small businesses and all they do for our community. Thank you for supporting downtown businesses and highlight just a few reasons shopping locally helps our community: ? Local businesses provide local jobs.
- Small businesses are innovative and diverse. They carry inventory and products that are fresh, new and different. An independent retailer will generally provide unique products that are unable to be found at larger retailers.
- Montpelier’s downtown businesses support the community in cooperating for a bustling downtown (Montpelier Alive) and hosting seasonal events to attract people into town and keep the downtown vibrant. Next up is the January skating party at the statehouse lawn - Saturday January 14th from 2 -5 pm.
- Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
- Shopping downtown increases our local tax base without increasing demand for extra costs in infrastructure and maintenance (as infrastructure already exists).
- Our downtown stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.
Happy Holidays from downtown Montpelier!
