Velvet Smoke Findlay Market bike riding foo's

Along with everything else happening last weekend we wanted to hit Findlay market and see our twitter bud Chef Todd out cooking with Velvet Smoke BBQ. Velvet is located on the south side of the market, an area underused until last summer, this spring it's slowly filling up again with outdoor grills in addition to the brick and mortar places that have been there all along like Skirtz & Johnston. Saturday I think I saw more people milling around on that side of the market than I ever had before. Velvet Smoke was showing off their 2012 State Grand Championship trophy, well earned I'd say, next time you're at Findlay check them out.
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The big crowd Saturday got me thinking about all the hand wringing lately over Findlay Markets decision to implement a parking fee.
Social media blew up, between supporters worried it would chase people away and haters gloating it would push people away to their neighborhood's farmers market.
Me, I had a completely different take. I felt that free parking and full lots pushed away someone who would want to swing through for a couple things and weren't interested in lingering. $2 to quickly find a spot and get in and out would be a bargain for those people.
Rather than go on a gut feeling I got some hard data that Findlay Market kindly shared with me.

Findlay market traffic Counts
This data is for the week ending May 20th the parking fee began May 14th the first day of week 20
Keep in mind these are door clicks, not customer counts. But door clicks can still be used as an indicator of trends.
Also its hard to make a valid conclusion cherry picking one week out of a year.
That said, I'm going to anyhow.
Week 20 saw a drop in traffic from week 19. But keep in mind last week was Mothers Day and 5 of the last 8 years saw drops from week 19 to week 20.
That said this past weekend, the first with pay parking we have Saturday seeing a 400 click increase over 2011 week 20 Saturday and Sunday seeing a 1700 click increase over 2011 week 20 Sunday.
So I guess the takeaway is its too soon to say either way, maybe in a month I'll check it out again.[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati

8 comments

8 comments:

  1. I can tell you that working Saturday right across from the BBQ, our business was WAY down. In fact, it was one of the worst Saturday's we've had in years. The biggest thing I heard from customers was they are on limited time. They need to mind their time which eliminates them from browsing and impulse buying.

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    1. This might mean something to me if I knew who you were.
      Otherwise I don't put much faith in Anonymous comments.

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  2. OK, found out who this was. All cool now.

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  3. interesting - interesting that Findlay gave you the numbers, too. :-)
    If I was still driving, I would probably be just fine with this because I just don't "shop". I like to get in & out & be done. However - how did Beer Garten & prepared food sales go as opposed to "take home" product sales?

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    1. We probably go as much for prepared food as we do for shopping. It would be interesting to see how individual vendors perform. Some fortunes might rise as others fall depending on what people who don't care about parking fees spend their money on.

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  4. We had a great weekend at Daisy Mae's and saw no effects from the new parking. Nevertheless, I'm glad you and others are monitoring as I'm sure the system will be fine-tuned so that shoppers get the best experience possible at Findlay Market. BTW, I love seeing all the bicyclists and walkers around OTR these days.

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  5. Good ol' door counts. I like to look at those as "ambiguous accuracy." How many times you think the same person/family goes in and out of the Market house on a Saturday or Sunday while shopping? The Market is closed on Monday's, yet I've seen door counts in the hundreds on that day, throughout the year. Not slightnig the post, just the current reporting methodology from Market management. For what it is worth, we actually have been busier since the paid parking has started...

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    1. Also, how many times have I held the door for a whole family to stroll in or out?
      Seems like there should be a tech out there that would count actual people.

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