Salem Shopping – Page 19 – Salem Main Streets

Great Holidays Do Really Begin Here in Salem

Contests, New Businesses, Salem Dining, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, SMS News No Responses »

Dec 102014

Can you remember a simpler time when holiday shopping was a simple stroll through friendly hometown stores and not a race through impersonal, giant, crowded malls? We do. And we are bringing that back.

Salem Main Streets is introducing a Holiday Stroll on Saturday, Dec. 13th to encourage residents to shop local and enjoy their downtown during the holiday season. Over 40 downtown retailers have committed to staying open until 8 pm on the 13th, and most will be offering special holiday discounts, promotions, and yummy refreshments all day.

How’s that for customer appreciation and “small town” ambiance.

A full list of participating retailers is available for your use.

In keeping with our goal of this being a total community effort, Boy Scout Troop 83 will be running a gift-wrapping station on Derby Square throughout the day, and will be joined by Troop 24, which will be selling wreaths in part to benefit the restoration of the Arch on Salem Common.

And while we are promoting all things Salem for Dec. 13th, don’t miss the Pickering Wharf businesses’ Winter Walk of the Wharf, including a stroll with Santa from 1-4 pm.

But that’s not the only event we have to make your trip worth your time. To add that extra bit of spice to our holiday gift to shoppers, Main Streets is once again conducting the Salem Holiday Window Contest, which runs now thru Dec. 13th.

Over 40 downtown businesses will be participating in the annual Holiday Window Contest, and this year the public can vote on their favorites at a participating business, or online at www.salemmainstreets.org/windows. These retailers go all out to do up their windows to entertain you, and if past entries are any indications (and they are!), we have many, many creative minds— and a couple of far out ones, as you would expect from Salem, MA. A full map of participating windows can be found here. Voting ends on Dec. 13th.

And one more thing. Creative Salem is giving us an extra promotional boost (…thank you, John…) with a related photo contest. For your chance to win a Creative Salem prize pack (valued at $150) take a picture while you are strolling through town or looking at store windows. Share it on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Vine); use the hashtag #salemwindows when posting! Winner will be chosen on the 14th.

Shop, vote, take pictures, find bargains, chat with friendly sales people. All courtesy of your downtown merchants of Salem, MA.

For additional info, contact Kylie Sullivan, Salem Main Streets Manager, at 978-744-0004 or kylie@salemmainstreets.org.

Turkey Day Means Still More to Do and See in Salem

Salem Event, Salem Farmers Market, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping No Responses »

Nov 272014

Thanksgiving may signal that the year is almost over— but not as far as activities to see and do in Salem Ma! So, as you go about your Turkey Day preparations at home, or on way to grandma’s house (or wherever you are going), here are some ingredients for the rest of the year:

Holiday Tree Lighting
Holiday Art Market
Four Centuries of Christmas at the Gables
Christmas in Salem
“A Christmas Carol” Trolley Tour
Santa’s Arrival at the Hawthorne
Small Business Saturday
Salem Winter Market

We’ll be telling you more about these and other events in upcoming blogs. Didn’t want to stuff you with too much… info today.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Warming Up to Downtown Shopping

New Businesses, Salem Event, Salem Farmers Market, Salem Shopping, SMS News No Responses »

Nov 222014

What do the over 100 restaurants, gift shops, other stores and attractions in Salem Ma have in common right now? Besides good bargains and eclectic choices, they have heat! Temperatures today (Saturday) are not expected to rise beyond the upper 30s. So you can sit at home, or go to a cold impersonal mall — or make Salem a one-stop warm & toasty shopping/dining daytrip destination. (This also applies to Sunday, or for that matter any day you would like to visit.)

But don’t take our word for it. Friday’s Salem Gazette had an article and an interview related to downtown shopping.

In the first of two front page stories, the emphasis was on the lengths North Shore communities (including Salem) go during the holiday season to invite and involve the community in local shopping over malls and big-box stores.

Ethan Hartley wrote “…local businesses in Massachusetts can offer something that you will be hard pressed to find under the bleak, florescent lights of a conglomerate store or a shopping mall — old-fashioned holiday cheer and excitement with an emphasis on building a strong community.”

Community is a key word. Salem Main Streets endeavors to work with our downtown merchants to design and promote events which increase business traffic and cement customer support/loyalty. The second article, an interview by Gregg Phipps with our manager Kylie Sullivan points to one of those projects, the Salem Winter Market.

Is the Winter Market successful in bringing people downtown to shop and do you think more and more people are turning away from mall shopping?

“That’s certainly the hope. There are so many great shops in downtown Salem, and we try really hard to ensure that our vendor offerings at the Winter Market complement rather than compete with the surrounding businesses.”

Kylie went on to explain that as much as the Market brings vendors to downtown Salem, it also creates a community gathering space in downtown Salem where residents and visitors from neighboring towns stop to chat with the vendors, other shoppers and even with merchants in surrounding stores.

Shopping need not be impersonal. It can be fun. The Winter Market will be closed this week in light of Thanksgiving but will be open again on Dec. 4, 11 and 18. Our stores, restaurants and attractions are open now. And the warmth you feel when you go inside comes from the people, as well as the heating vents.

Salem Makes Top 20 List of ‘Hot’ Mass. Communities

Salem Event 2 Responses »

Nov 162014

You may have missed this item this week, so it bears repeating: WCVB in Boston reported on a survey by numbers-crunching company NerdWallet that puts a bright spotlight on Salem and neighboring communities.

Granted, it’s our job at Salem Main Streets to say how great downtown Salem is as an entertainment, dining, and daytrip destination. Same rationale applies to Destination Salem and other local groups dedicated to promoting Salem to the masses. So, it is nice when someone else says it, and with tons of statistics.

According to WCVB “NerdWallet crunched the numbers for the 61 communities in Massachusetts with more than 20,000 residents to find those demonstrating growth in jobs, income and population. The most recent data — from 2009 to 2012 — was used.”

Here are some cities and towns in our area:

#50 Gloucester
#49 Danvers
#45 Boston
#40 Peabody
#32 Marblehead
#15 Beverly
#14 Lynn

And in 13th place (where else would the Witch City be?) is Salem. We are in the Top 20; almost the top 10. All this goes to say that besides being a nice place to visit, Salem is a good place in which to live, and getting better. Thanks NerdWallet for sharing!

(For the curious, 1st place was awarded to Westfield Ma.)

Image courtesy of Pong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Open Market Open For Biz – Traditional and a Bit Strange

Haunted Happenings, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping 2 Responses »

Oct 232014

Where can you find the “best independent designers, artisans, artists and crafters together in a maelstrom of cutting edge design, art and handmade wares?” Where else but in Salem Ma; Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the last three weeks of October, you will find SOWA, an open-air arts market with over 50 booths.

Just to give you an idea of the eclectic items that await you, here are descriptions of three vendors that have been or will be available on the weekend.

Nick & Jillian of R.H. Mardigan Enterprises and Emry’s Handcrafted Fynery. She makes jewelry and accessories out of ephemera, resin and other findings. He makes leather cuffs and accessories with a steampunk flair. And from the Steampunk events at the Peabody Essex, you know there is interest in that genre.

Diane Koss of Cutesy But Not Cutesy, specializes in making monsters (we think we’ve seen a few of those in recent weeks in Salem), but she also makes monster designer toys that you can cuddle; and a popular item has been the amazing monster hoodies for kids, adults and dogs!

And then there is the strange relationship between Zombies (always a big item in Salem during October) and published author / illustrator Greg Stones. Just look at this picture representing (at least to us) the clash of a long running horror theme and a recent over-the-top horror craze.

SOWA will run Friday-Sunday 10/24-26 at Derby Square Vending from 11 am – 6 pm, and Essex Street Vending from 11am – 10 pm. For more info go to their website http://newenglandopenmarkets.com/

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