Cinco de Mayo Sat. May 3

This weekend downtown hosts the annual Cinco de Mayo festival. This colorful celebration includes food, music and dancing, vendor booths, and a car show. The weather forecast is perfect for a stroll down Main Street. See you there!

Ladies' Night Out

Starting this Wednesday night, April 23rd, eleven downtown businesses are hosting "Ladies' Night Out" from 6-8 p.m.
Stores will be open late and having specials, snacks, and/or activities. You can drop the kids off at Creative Avenues for $6 per child and shop to your heart's content. For our first Ladies' Night, we invite you to come in and play a round of our favorite new game, Bananagrams.
We will have different activities or specials each Wednesday night through the end of May. There will also be a drawing each week for free merchandise or services from participating merchants. This week's giveaway is a free cut & color from Five 60 Salon.
Come join the fun!

Toys For the Fun of It
Creative Avenues
Five 60 Salon
Kairos
Pollux
Miss Marie
Coffee Muggers
626 on Rood
13 Photography
Pilates
Pretty Things

Earth Day Event Sat. April 19th

We will celebrate Earth Day in the store this coming Saturday, April 19th. Plan Toys has been kind enough to supply us with an activity complete with prizes for all. Plan Toys is a German company that makes wooden toys. The toys are made in Thailand out of recycled rubber wood. Color applied is from vegetable dyes with a natural finish. They have won all the European green awards. We carry a selection of their toys including wooden dollhouse & accessories, blocks, walker wagon, infant rattles, lacing beads, stacking and pounding toys & pull toys.
As business owners and as individuals, we are committed to doing our part to "save the planet". We recycle, we sell some sustainable products, and we promote conservation and wilderness programs and environmental education.
http://www.leaveitwild.org/campaigns/colorado

MOG Fest April 12 '08

The 500 block of Main Street hosted it's first MOG Fest yesterday. I really didn't quite know what to expect, but it was a good event and I hope it will become an annual happening.
MOG: Manufacturers of Outdoor Gear (the name is also inspired by the "Tracks & Trails" unimog featured here) put on a super sidewalk sale. Local manufacturers included Mountain Sprouts kid clothing, Chaco footwear, Loki outerwear & Black Diamond skis. Local retailers also came out to sell off their last year's styles as new merchandise is coming in already. Rounding out the event were KAFM, providing music, and several local wilderness and conservation groups with information booths.

Endgame for Montrose

Our decision to close the Montrose location is the culmination of a lot of factors; the bottom line being top of the list. We are no longer profitable there. We are going strong at our Grand Junction location and invite all of our Montrose customers to please come see us when you're in town.
Our decision was made with a lot of soul searching and plenty of hard numbers. We have the advantage of getting out and moving our inventory to Grand Junction. Other small businesses in Montrose don't have that and are quietly suffering or closing their doors. Our hearts go out to our fellow downtown retailers. Montrose is a tough market.
We have seen many businesses come and go since we opened in 1995. We have seen our first little customers grow up and a few are bringing their children in to see us. I would like to take this venue to remind my local customers to please vote with your dollars. Think about where you shop and who you are supporting in the process.
Montrose is growing and changing- as it should be. However, this most recent round of rampant big box retail in such a small community has created an environment where nobody wins. The consumer may feel like a winner with more shopping options, but there aren't enough consumers or dollars to support all these options. Short term, small retailers are hurt the most. The big stores can absorb losses for years if they are balanced by gains elsewhere. But even a "losing" big box store will cut back if the return isn't there. In the long run, maybe the town will grow enough to support it's service industry. For now it is hard times for all.