Normally, I don’t cover business, but I felt compelled to write this after an afternoon stroll through downtown Tomah yesterday.
During my afternoon walk yesterday I noticed an interesting trend among small businesses downtown: they come and go quite frequently. One would think some would stay and become an established operation – or at least remain in business. I found two that are newer, but appear to be more successful than the others and certainly worth mentioning.
Funky Monkey is one of the most unique and captivating small town stores I’ve have discovered. What a store! On the street level you’ll find computer equipment and service small town style, DJ equipment and other electronics. Up in the loft you’ll find trinkets of wizards and other high quality decorations and knick knacks for your home. My girlfriend and I found it to be an excellent store to visit together – I, of course, spent much of my time downstairs enjoying fantasizing about that next custom computer and she – spending money upstairs on decorations for our home. The exterior of this store looks more like a rave club with its fluorescent orange and purple paint, but on the bright side (pun intended), it’s very easy to find!
Another great store is the Party Store. They have just about everything you need to host a party that you could think of!! Although not as affordable as the party shops down in La Crosse, their prices are not outrageous. In fact, unless you are going to be in La Crosse for a different reason, you’ll save on gas and time by shopping at a much more convenient store…and support your community in the process. I have used the store 3-4 times over the last year and with one small exception (John Deere Tractor Helium Balloon) they have had everything I was looking for. From the outside, the store lacks any bright signage or window art so you must look for it…it’s on the opposite side of the road from Funky Monkey (I didn’t even know it existed until I walked by one afternoon). One last tidbit, we had some mylar balloons filled with helium and they floated for over a month!! All of the balloons were victim to our 1970’s style popcorn ceiling, ceiling fans and rambunctious kids before they lost their float!
Some of the ones that have come and gone are even more interesting because I think they all had a good business idea, but poor execution and poor pricing decisions they forced themselves out of business. Many people think, “If business is down, I’ll charge my few customers more to make up the difference.” What they don’t understand is that with the current state of the economy, many customers will happily sacrifice quality for a cheaper alternative.
I’ll save the poor execution cases for another time…
In the meantime, I’d like to know what makes you shop or visit downtown businesses OR what prevents you from doing so?
~TomahNews~
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Filed under: Downtown, Funky Monkey, General, Party Supply, Tomah | Tagged: Businesses, Funky Monkey, Party Supply, Tomah | 1 Comment »
