The Toomer’s Corner intersection has opened, ending the summer of construction. The construction blocked parking in front of the stores, and while there was free parking in the Gay Street parking deck, the construction made it more difficult for people to visit downtown Auburn.
It seems that the construction affected business in different ways.
”Yes, greatly ... I would say retail was off 75-80 percent,” said Eric Stamp, owner of Stamp, a T-shirt store that has been located downtown for 17 years. “I didn’t expect it to be quite as bad and wasn’t as nervous as some of the other businesses.”
He thinks a cause of decreased sales numbers could be that fewer Camp War Eagle families came through downtown.
“It was a direct reflection on how many people were walking around,” Stamp said.
He said there would be days where it felt like no one walked into the store.
Stamp only had to close one day for sidewalk construction in front of the shop.
Annabelle, Stamp’s dog, was very curious about the construction, according to Stamp.
“She will hang out right wherever the guys are working and doing whatever they’re doing,” Stamp said.“She likes to be where they are and inspect their work.”
While the construction may have affected his business, Stamp had nothing but good things to say about the construction staff.
“The staff has definitely worked with us and we have gotten to know some of them,” Stamp said. “The workers themselves ... They put in a lot of long weeks and late nights and Sunday nights.”
Stamp is president of the Downtown Merchants Association; the association did lots of promoting downtown Auburn through advertising.
Wrapsody, also located in downtown Auburn, was affected differently by the construction.
“You know it really hasn’t, we have such a great loyal customer base, we were actually up for the month of June,” said Kristen Taylor, assistant manager of Wrapsody.
She said that the store's merchandise may be why their sales were not affected.
Like Stamp, Wrapsody did not have many issues with closing for construction.
“It would be loud every now and then but …we are able to close our doors,” Taylor said.
She said the experience was better than she thought it would be, and she thought the construction was finished quickly.
Taylor said the customers would mention the construction.
“They said they would have some problems kinda walking around, but we let them out our back door if they needed to just get through,” Taylor said.
The construction did not affect the Wrapsody staff parking because they parked in the Gay Street parking deck.
Sarah Brown also works at Wrapsody. She is the treasurer for the Downtown Merchants Association, and said the merchants were happy with the construction company. She said there was a monthly meeting to address their concerns.
On Aug. 21, Come Home to the Corner will take place in downtown Auburn. There will be a poker run with stops in many of the downtown stores and there will be live music on the corner. Wrapsody and Stamp will be stops on the poker run.
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