MONTICELLO, Fla. (WCTV) – Local business leaders are asking the community to support downtown Monticello businesses as many continue to struggle with rising costs and less foot traffic.
A recent Facebook post from the Jefferson County/Monticello Chamber of Commerce is drawing attention to the issue with the message, “Our Downtown Needs Us.”
The post encourages business owners to come together and asks property owners to consider reasonable rent rates to help local businesses succeed.
Just last week, downtown Monticello lost two businesses.
The Chamber’s Executive Director, Amy McDaniel, says a lot of it has to do with rent cost and less foot traffic.
“We’re putting out an appeal to our business owners to have reasonable rates for the times that we’re in here in Monticello; we can’t necessarily have big city prices for leasing buildings right here in our town.”
The Chamber is also encouraging people to shop local whenever they can.
“We are just appealing to our local community here to shop local as much as possible, eat here, get your gas here, buy your groceries here; it’s not that hard if you make a conscious effort to do that,” McDaniel said.
Local business owner Ashley Cowen says it’s difficult to watch other businesses struggle.
“It’s hard to see everybody struggling because that’s their passion. They obviously opened a store because that’s what they wanted to do; it made them happy, and people are choosing convenience over quality and community,” Cowen said. “I just don’t want to see any more businesses close.”
County leaders say they’re also looking for ways to bring more people downtown.
Jefferson County Manager Doug Baber says the county and city are working together on projects to help increase foot traffic.
“Our economic development council is going to be working on an idea to have a downtown Farmer’s market that we can host once a month over here around the courthouse area to try to get the foot traffic downtown,” Baber said.
Despite losing businesses, McDaniel says the Chamber is hopeful about the opening of Aldi this week.
She says the new store is a welcome addition and hopes it will bring more people back to the area to shop for their groceries.
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