NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 2, 2021

35 NCLM.ORG the grant winners. Ultimately, they settled on the name Shop Downtown New Bern, or shopdowntownnewbern.com. They began by engaging stakeholders. Through several focus groups of local businesses, Harakal and Swiss Bear proceeded to gather specific issues and hurdles that local businesses were facing, while at the same time working to make business owners more comfortable with this new idea. They learned the full cata- log of downtown offerings, and drafted plans to organize the site to best categorize all the available items. That led to a first draft, then more focus groups, then tweaks, and then more meetings with store owners. Next, they got the businesses online. Through persistent outreach, Harakal and the Swiss Bear staff walked the business owners through the process of uploading items, descriptions, pictures and prices. Each participating store has their own login, which allows them to manage their inventory as needed. “Honestly, there was so much uncertainty that the businesses jumped on board because they were looking for any solution to help,” Harakal said. Offline, Swiss Bear finalized two critical administrative pieces. First, where would the items be picked up? Working with a partnering business just outside of downtown, they were able to secure a regular pickup spot with excess parking. After a cus- tomer buys an item from a store—or from several stores—they’ll be alerted when their items are ready for pickup. If they need the items to be shipped, Swiss Bear handles that, too. Second, they streamlined payment, both from the customer and to the owners. There is a single checkout for the buyers, and A Pandemic Innovation It’s important to recognize that many of the storefronts lining downtowns and city centers across North Carolina are only that— storefronts. The shops and small businesses both drive and benefit from foot traffic, and that defines the mutually prosperous relationship between the town and the store . continues on page 36