TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — After recent revitalizations to the downtown Taylorville area, small business owners have seen the town flourish, especially during the Christmas season.
Steve Craggs, Co-Chair of the Small Town Taylorville Advertising Committee, says that with how far the Taylorville community has come in the last few years, it has become a hot-spot for Christmas shopping. "I mean, you kind of get that feeling where you want a Hallmark-type town -- especially at this Christmas time -- and Taylorville really does fit that niche."
Rachel Whitlow, a vendor at The Dandy Lion in Taylorville square, said that the Small Town Taylorville organization has done a lot for local business owners. "Small town Taylorville's really put a name for our town. And so people know that when they come here that they can go to all these little shops and support small -- it's just a win-win for everybody."
Craggs said he set out with a mission to bring the town to its true potential. "One of the things I always thought was: if we could take our downtown and revitalize it with our shopping like this, we have this wonderful golden nugget that nobody else has got." Craggs explained. "So our portion of this was to take advertising money and promote the city the same way that we promote our individual businesses." Craggs said that businesses involved with the Small Town Taylorville organization collaborate on ways to cross-promote each other. "That synergy is pretty special...Constantly we're we're referring people over: 'Have you visited here' or 'have you visited there,' and handing that map out."
Whitlow said that businesses work together to make sure each other thrive. "When people come in, if there's something that we don't have here, we know another small business might have it. We're always like, you know, 'go check out this store,' 'go check out that store.'" She says that the redevelopment of businesses that has taken place over the last years has been a huge benefit to the community. "They're just doing a really good thing to help our businesses and...it's really brought our downtown alive -- that's exciting."
Craggs said that the revitalization in the downtown area doesn't just positively affect businesses on the square, but the whole community. "These folks that come to our town now through the shopping events or through the car shows or through the farmers market, guess where else they're going? And they're filling up with gas up and down the way they're going to a different restaurant, up and down the way, you know, they're utilizing our goods and our services throughout our entire town. And that's what Small Town Taylorville is all about. That's always what it was always about."
Copyright 2024. WAND TV. All rights reserved.
