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 Emporia Main Street Calendar of Events 

December 14

Promotions Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

Design Committee Meeting

noon in the Emporia Main Street office

December 15-17

Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe

December 15

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

December 21

Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

December 22

Horse Drawn Carriage Rides

December 28

Business Enhancement Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

Home Based Meeting

12:30 p.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

January 4th

Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office.

January 7th

Granada Bridal and Prom Expo

noon in the Granada Theatre.

January 11th

Promotions Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

Design Meeting

noon in the Emporia Main Street office

January 18th

Board Meeting

8:00 a.m. in the Emporia Main Street office

January 19-20

Kansas Main Street Quarterly Training- El Dorado

April 1-4

National Main Street Conference- Baltimore, MD

April 13-15

Glass Blown Open Disc Golf Tournament by Dynamic Discs

April 19-20

Kansas Main Street Quarterly Training, Dodge City

April 21

The Taste

Civic Auditorium

May 19

Downtown Car Show by the Flatland Cruisers

June 2

The Dirty Kanza

June 9th

Symphony in the Flint Hills

Benefactors 

The City of Emporia

Lyon County

Bobby D's BBQ

Caribbean Sun Tanning

CoreFirst Bank & Trust

The Emporia Gazette

ESB Financial

Emporia's Radio

StationsKVOE, 104.9, Country 101.7

Longbine Auto Plaza

Roberts Blue Barnett Funeral Home

T2 Verizon Wireless

AKA Marketing/The Sports Fan

Amanda's Bakery

Applebee's

Ash, LLC.

Atherton & Huth Attorney at Law

Barden & Thompson

Bath Expressions

Bennett Dental Group

Best Western Hospitality House

Black Heart Cherry

Brown's Shoe Fit Co.

C & J Woodworks

Cable One

Cable One Advertising

Capitol Federal

Cassell Insurance

Chester Press, Inc.

Clark Carpet & Tile

Coffelt Sign Co. 

Commercial Street Diner

Complete Works

Country Mart/Price Chopper

Dan's Hands

Dorsey & Wise Family Eye Care

Douglas Chiropractic Center

Dynamic Disks

Emporia Chamber of Commerce

Emporia State Federal Credit Union

ESU Memorial Union

E-Town Solutions

First Community Bank

Flint Hills Eye Care Associates

Flint Hills Lanes

Flint Hills Music

Flint Hills Tech College

Flint Hills Mall

Forget Me Not Productions

Four Seasons Apartments

Furniture Loft

Genesis Health Club

George Groh & Sons

Gerald Schumann Electric

Glendo

Granada Coffee Company

Granada Plaza & Lofts

Graves Drug Store

Hair Krafters

Helbert & Allemang Attorney's at Law

High Gear Cyclery

Hornet Residential

IM Design Group

Java Cat 5

Jimmy John's

Kansas Radio 96.1 The Wave

KISS 103.1

Krueger & Williams Law Office

L & L Pets

Little Acorns

Little Caesers Pizza

Lyon County State Bank

Lyon County Title

Marion National Bank

Mark II Lumber

Mathis Physical Therapy

McDonald's on 6th Ave.

McKinzie Pest Control

Menu Foods Midwest Corp.

Midas Touch Golden Tans

Modern Air Conditioning

Muckenthaler, Inc.

Nature's Paradise

Navrat's Office Products

Pizza Ranch

Plum Bazaar

Poehler Mercantile

Pool & Wright

Prairie Sage Apartments

Prairie Land Partners

Pro Cuts

Pyramid Pizza

Redi Upholstry

Redline Trucking

Ru Yi

Sauder Custom Fabrication

Scheller's Lawn & Landscape

Simmons Pet Food

SS Graham Insurance Agency

Stanley Jewelry

Studio 11

Subway

Sunflower Gymnastics

Symmonds & Symmonds Attorney at Law

The Help Desk

The Henrikson Team

The Medicine Shoppe

The Sweet Granada

The Villiger

The White Rose Inn

Thompson Auto Repair

Toso Appraisal Service

Total Technology, LLC

Town Crier Bookstore

Town Royal

Water's True Value

Westar Energy

Wheat State Pizza

Williams Automotive

 Big Brothers Big Sisters

Community Theatre of Emporia

Corner House

Emporia Arts Council

Emporia Farmer's Market

Emporia Granada Theatre Alliance

Emporia High School Future Business Leaders of America

Emporia Public Library

ESU Foundation

Small Business Development Center

First Presbyterian Church

Flint Hills Optimists Club

Jayhawk Area Council (Scouts)

Lyon County Historical Society

National Teachers Hall of Fame

Plumb Place

The United Way 

Boyzen Bunny Fiber Arts- Tracey Graham

Energy Innovators

Family Jewels-

Leticia Rust

Gold Canyon Candle- Stephanie Morgan

Green Door Recycling- Amy Becker

Independant Longaberger Consultant- Judith Dieker

Interdependent Web- Ben Stallings

Joe the Furniture Doctor- Joe Kurzen

Kynda Kreative- Amanda Mendoza

Mary Kay- Brenda Braynard

Pampered Chef- Chelsea Gerleman

Patti Cakes- Patti Lipson

Paula's Creations

Paula Roper

Premier Designs Jewelry- Nikki Simmons

RossTography

Mike Ross

Scentsy- Deann Rose

Stampin-Up

Darcy Johnson

Tastefully Simple- Vanessa Apodaca 

Anne Strobel

Brad Harzman

Dale and Carolyn Davis

Erin Woods

Julie Johnson

Kayla Oney

Mark & Amy McAnarney

Mary & Tim Helmer

Matt & Val Zimmerman

Pam & Fred Stephenson

Peggy Mast

Rob Gilligan

Sue Blechl

Victoria Partridge 

Emporia Main Street E- Newsletter

 The events listed above, holiday lighting and more are brought to you through the support of Red Ribbon Merchants.  Thank these Red Ribbon Merchants TODAY!

AKA Marketing, Bath Expressions, Brown's Shoe Fit, Complete Works, Dan's Hands, the Emporia Arts Council, Forget Me Not, Graves Drug Store, IM Design Group, Lyon County Title, L & L Pets, Plum Bazaar, Poehler Mercantile, Pro Cuts, Stanley Jewelry, Studio 11, Town Crier and Twisted Sisters. 

To sign up for tickets: CLICK HERE!

We still need a few more models for the fashion shows, so if you are over 5'5" tall and would like to participate, please contact the Emporia Granada Theatre at 620-342-3342.

For more information on the Conference: CLICK HERE!

Emporia's Pull factor
 What it is, and why it's important.

The following is an article written at the request of an Emporia Gazette Staff Member to explain the city pull factor in detail:

Emporia is blessed with a tremendous number of volunteers, organizations, and everyday citizens that work hard to move this community forward in a positive and sustainable manner.  Each day we see examples of local people taking responsibility for making Emporia a better place to live, work and play.  Entrepreneurs investing their hard earned savings in new businesses or business expansions, citizens donating their efforts to create events that pull people into the Emporia area, residents donating their time to local organizational committees, and Emporians donating their work, expertise and money to worthy local causes help make Emporia a great community.  However, as in any community, people always want more, and that drive towards continuous and sustainable improvement is the hallmark of any great town.

When we as citizens of Emporia push for improvements in jobs, commercial options, amenities, and quality of life, we need a realistic view of where we are right now as a community, what is reasonably achievable for a community of our population and income, and how we can intersect with emerging trends so that we can proactively put our community into a position to achieve our ultimate goal of sustainable progress for the future.  Although I think we can all agree that our community has significant work ahead of us in our efforts to create a better city, I also believe it is vitally important to celebrate our successes as we discourage apathy and invite citizens to work towards a brighter future.

As the Emporia Main Street Director, I've had the opportunity to speak with students at Emporia State University, Flint Hills Technical College, Emporia High School and listen to local elementary school officials.  I often communicate with various groups and individuals throughout Emporia and listen to concerns, ideas and perceptions relating to the state of our community.  This communication with a variety of different people across age ranges, location within the community, income levels, gender and race allows Main Street the opportunity to continue our work as a responsive community organization.  It also allows us the opportunity to respond to community perceptions with positive news as we continue to work towards solutions to issues in Emporia.

Emporia Main Street is often asked about the health of our Retail, Restaurant and Service options within the community.  While many would contend that determining the sufficient nature of these categories is strictly perceptual, there is an actual metric calculated by the Kansas Department of Revenue to determine the health of retail community within a given city.  This metric is referred to as the "Retail Pull Factor". According the Kansas Department of Revenue Office of Policy Research report entitled "A Study of Retail Trade in Cities Across Kansas- An Annual Report of Trade Pull Factors and Trade Area Captures, Annual report for Fiscal Year 2010: "It (City Trade Pull Factor) is a measure of the relative strength of the retail business community. The City Trade Pull Factor is computed by dividing the per capita sales tax of a city by the statewide per capita sales tax. A CiTPF of 1.00 is a perfect balance of trade. The purchases of city residents who shop elsewhere are offset by the purchases of out-of-city customers. CiTPF values greater than 1.00 indicates that local businesses are pulling in trade from beyond their home city border. Thus, the balance of trade is favorable. A CiTPF value less than 1.00 indicates more trade is being lost than pulled in, that residents are shopping outside the city. This is an unfavorable balance of trade."

So, what is Emporia's pull factor?  According to the Kansas Department of Revenue Office of Policy Research in their Annual report for Fiscal Year 2010, the pull factor for Emporia Kansas is 1.12.  Within the report, Emporia was cited as one of the "1st Class" communities that "dominate their county's retail trade" with over 90% of sales.  Of the "dominant" 1st Class community examples provided within the report, Emporia ranked fourth, behind Salina (95.2%), Liberal (93.1%) and Lawrence (92.4%) by capturing 92.1% of county sales. Emporia's Pull Factor showed a marked improvement in 2010. In 2006 Emporia's pull factor was 1.07, followed by pull factors of 1.07 in 2007, 1.04 in 2008 and 1.02 in 2009.  While we did not see much "big business" net growth in 2010 within Emporia, we did see eighteen small business entities start up within the downtown area alone during the 2010 calendar year.  You can view the full on-line report at the following URL:

http://www.ksrevenue.org/pdf/citypullfactorfy10.pdf or

Are there category areas where we need to improve in Emporia? Sure. Certain clothing options, restaurant categories and specialty stores have a defined market gap, and we use those defined gaps to encourage entrepreneurs. During the first nine months of 2011 we have seen eleven new entrepreneurs invest in new businesses downtown, new businesses expansions, new infill developments, major building rehabilitations, better promotional events to support existing businesses and new tools to aid in business start ups, expansions and building improvements.  We must recognize that our limited trade area population and median income, when compared to the large metropolitan areas around Emporia, disqualify us from placement consideration by some large corporations.  However, the investments made by your neighbors in business expansions and new ventures are helping fill market gaps.  For example, Furniture Loft is helping fill gaps in furniture, electronics and appliances. Studio 11's new expansion addresses a defined gap in specialty shops. Twisted Sisters meets a women's clothing need.

At the beginning of this article, I referred tothe unique involved nature of area residents. If you are willing to involve yourself in the continued improvement of Emporia, there are some very simple things you can do.  First, communicate with our existing businesses concerning things that you like or that you would like to see offered within their business.  Emporia Main Street has a very simple customer feedback form that you can fill out anonymously to help our existing businesses improve, and you can find the physical form in the Emporia Main Street office or the on-line printable form produced by a local volunteer at the following URL: http://www.emporiamainstreet.com/images/2011%20Secret%20Shopper%20Form.pdf .  Second, explore our existing businesses.  Often people request categories of items or restaurant types that we already have, and after we make suggestions to meet consumer requests locally we commonly hear "I didn't think of that".  Third, consider opening a business that fits the category of retail, restaurant or service that you desire.  We can't expect others to invest in our community if we refuse to invest in ourselves, and we have agencies, financial assistance and training (including the highly successful "Start Your Own Business Class" this February) designed to turn your dream business into a reality.  If you are unwilling or unable to start a business, consider investing with an appropriate entrepreneur.

We appreciate your continued desire to improve Emporia.  For those of you looking for new ways to help Emporia succeed, we hope you consider volunteering for Emporia Main Street.  There is obviously a lot to do as we continue to build sustainable success in Emporia, and we appreciate any help or guidance you can provide.  Emporia Main Street is located at 12 East 5th Avenue in downtown Emporia, our web site is  http://emporiamainstreet.com , or you can find us on social media like Facebook or Twitter.  Thank you for helping make Emporia a better place, and we hope that you share the news of improvements in your city as we continue to push forward.   

 I have a great deal of respect for organizations like the Small Business Development Center, and when working with the SBDC and other like organizations, the importance of identifying real market gaps when building businesses in Emporia (or any other city) is vitally important.  Simply assuming something will "work" because it is recognizable or utilizing an "I like buying there" argument can get a community in trouble quickly.  We do have market gaps in various goods and services that can represent opportunities for certain businesses, but we must also recognize that Emporia currently has a postive pull factor that improved substantially in 2010, mainly through the hard work of local businesses like you.   , how do you think we should move forward in the areas of retail and service recruitment/retention?   E-mail us your thoughts at main.street@emporia-kansas.gov .

Last week we secured a banner in this year's Kris Kringle's Kids Shoppe location (725 Commercial Street), we gave a facade grant with the help of Ron Thomas from Emporia's Radio Stations and Jessica Buchholz of the

Main Street collectable ornaments are moving FAST!

Granada Theatre to Ash LLC., we were interviewed by a regional radio station (KDFR) about activities going on in Emporia, we met with the city Manager concerning the future of the CID process, we hosted a Quarter Mania event, we held a board meeting, we participated in a "visioning process meeting", we held carriage rides, we hosted 15 ESU Students on a downtown tour, we hosted a Midnight Madness, and we worked with two entrepreneurs that are on schedule to open their businesses in downtown this spring.  This weekend, it was back in the office to volunteer help for local youth, clean up some area stair wells and get caught up in the office...  It's a crazy time of year, but it allows us the opportunity to get some great questions from all of you!

1.  "Is Quarter Mania a Main Street fundraiser?"  From a participant.  No.  Quarter Mania is designed to expose the public to local business products and services in a fun environment.  We classify this event as a "break even" event, where it is simply designed to generate enough funds to cover our basic costs.  Main Street prides itself on putting the focus on our members, their products and their services.  So, whether we are talking about Quarter Mania, Midnight Madness, our gift certificates or a myriad of other activities throughout the year (there are a BUNCH) we either want to bring people to Emporia to expose them to the area, make registers ring or create a combination of both. 

2.  "What did you think of Midnight Madness?"  From several people. Overall, I think the event did very well.  It exposed people to area businesses that they might not be familiar with, lots of sales were made and we got some important feedback from both businesses and participants.  We want you to fill out a short survey concerning Midnight Madness (Click HERE Midnight Madness Survey), but the two suggestions we got out of the event were: 1.- Hold Midnight Madness WAY more often (monthly was the suggestion of some long established businesses).  2.  Some businesses wanted us to establish some sort of prize to encourage people to visit ALL participating businesses or help to better develop business clusters so businesses weren't participating in an area "alone".  These suggestions point to an event that continues to grow (the first Midnight Madness had 17 businesses, this version had 44 participating businesses).  We will continue to work hard to adapt our events to meet your needs.

Emporia Main Street, with Emporia's Radio Stations and the Granada Theatre raise funds through the Granada Bridal & Prom Expo for facade or sign grants.  This year's recipient was Ash LLC, for work they did restoring a doorway and stairway to their upper story apartment.  The pink building below will house "Mr. Sister's Sweets"- a cake decorator, cupcake and confectionery boutique opening this January.  Pictured are Ron Thomas, Amy Harmon and Jessica Buchholz.

3.  "What do you think of all the changes happening around Emporia?" From a friend. Congratulations to Dr. Shonrock, his family and ESU as a new University President can move the university forward.  That announcement, when coupled with a myriad of other changes in Emporia mean changes are occurring rapidly.  This can be a very good thing for the community.  If we remember to stay who we are and don't try to "keep up with the Joneses" (by "Jones" I mean much larger communities surrounding us that have a much different demographic mix), I think we could be turning a corner.      

Before work on their entryway, the Ash LLC building invited random individuals onto the stairway resulting in vandalism and other unfortunate situations.

4.  "Can I purchase Carriage Ride tickets in advance?" From a few calls to the office. Yes.  Horse Drawn Carriage Rides take place the first four Thursdays in December at the 700 Block of Merchant Street kiosk.  We suggest a donation of $5 per seat at the rides, and the rides take place in 15 minute increments from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.  You can reserve a spot in advance of the carriage ride by showing up to the kiosk on Thursday starting at 4:30 p.m., or you can contact the Main Street office.

5. "Do you think some Emporian's just want to keep us a "small town"?"  From a city leader. I'm sure there are a few, but I haven't really talked to many people from Emporia that feel that way.  I do talk to a lot of people that agree we need to create jobs in industry and technology, redevelop existing areas of the community, and raise our median household income to improve the population within the community.  Basic marketing teaches that many product and service offerings are a symptom of disposable income and population within a market.  If we can remember that, and we can strive to achieve a unique market position, we will succeed as a community.  If we overdevelop through sprawl based projects and attempt to replicate what is being done in a community close by, we will set ourselves up for disappointment.  I will continue to advocate for our existing businesses, redevelop existing commercial areas and sustainable growth that leads to long term success.