Making Progress

Saturday was a crazy day at Global Fayre - way busier than any day we have had before.

Being a ‘for-profit’ store, sales revenues are obviously important for us. But the real thrill factor on Saturday was the number of people that had clearly made the decision to be concious consumers for a significant part of their holiday shopping. In coming to Global Fayre they were showing their commitment to a number of things:

1 – Fair Trade. Awareness of Fair Trade in the Springfield area is definately growing. Hopefully we’ve played a part in this, but there are plenty of other people out there making great efforts to promote the concept too. Just the fact that we participated in 8 Fair Trade events this fall, compared to just one last year, is a good indication of our progress.

2 – Downtown Springfield. It hasn’t been an easy year for downtown Springfield. Seems like we’ve lost more stores than we have gained. BUT – it’s been great to see much more foot traffic and a growing number of downtown regulars. Feels like the growth of retail is lagging way behind the level of demand from customers.

3 – Buying Local. As a Fair Trade store selling products from all over the world, the ‘buy local’ concept is an interestting one for us. We started at a Farmers Market on C-Street, and we are passionate supporters of local production. What comes through from our customers is that they recognise us as a local store, plus they value our knowledge of the artisans that produce the products we carry; it really is a wonderful aspect of Fair Trade that you can feel closely connected to a group of weavers that live half way around the world.

All this to say that two years after opening Global Fayre it feels like we have started to make our home here in the downtown district of Springfield Missouri. We’re grateful to the community here for opening their hearts and minds to Global Fayre and Fair Trade. We’re also looking forward to playing our part in the continued development of downtown Springfield in the years to come.

Inside Global Fayre: Some images of the store

We are often asked what the store looks like, so we  posted some images on Facebook earlier today.

Here’s just a few of them:

Cash wrap at Global Fayre

Inside Global Fayre

Kite in the mirror

New Opening Times

Opening Times

We’re changing our standard opening hours as follows:

Mon  10:00am to 6:00pm
Tue  10:00am to 6:00pm
Wed  10:00am to 6:00pm
Thu  10:00am to 7:00pm
Fri  10:00am to 7:00pm
Sat  10:00am to 7:00pm
Sun  1:00pm to 5:00pm

These hours will start from Monday November 24th
We’ll be closed on Thanksgiving Day (November 27th)
We’ll be open on Black Friday (November 28th) and will have lots of goodies for you to sample, as well as the sale table (some things are marked down by 50%). Our friends and neighbors on South Campbell are open for Black Friday as well, so head downtown for some bargains and fun!
As you can see, we’re also opening on Sunday’s for the first time. We plan to keep these opening times for the rest of the year, and will let you know if and when we change them again.

First Friday at Global Fayre

First Friday will be here very soon – and we can’t wait!

We always look forward to First Friday Art Walk; it’s great having so many people downtown, everyone having a good time, all the galleries full to the brim. But this time we’re more excited than usual.

Why?

It started last week – we took delivery of a consignment of fantastic Zulu baskets. Some are traditional weave, others are a wonderful combination of the old and the new – baskets woven traditionally but using telephone wire. Vibrant colors, wonderful shapes and patterns – just outstanding. They were so wonderful that we couldn’t resist putting them out on show ahead of time (well, some of them – you have to hold something back for First Friday, right?!).

But these baskets are not the only reason for our excitement. We have live music again this month, this time from someone who has been a friend to Global Fayre pretty much since we first opened. Alexander Kofi (of Jah Kings) will be playing acoustic guitar and Djimbe drum. We’re really thrilled to have our friend here on Friday – it’s going to be an awesome evening!

First Friday Art Walk – Sept 5th

We’re delighted to have a double feature this month.

First off, we have the beautiful creations of Cheryl Draudt. Originally from Salt Lake City, Cheryl started to learn the challenging art of woodworking scroll shortly before moving to the Ozarks in 2000.

The pieces on display for First Friday reflect a natural wildlife theme, inspired by the beautiful areas that Cheryl has lived in, including Cougar and Cub, Wolf Pack and The Owl and Mouse.

bird-basket

Cheryl will also be on hand to describe in detail the challenging work that went in to each piece.

Alongside Cheryl’s exhibit, we have the wonderful sounds of Moonhoney.

Moonhoney is Grace Easley on viola, Adriana Jones on vocals/piano, and Ryan Flores on vocals/guitar.

The music is a mixture of classical, flamenco, rock ‘n’ roll, Latin, and jazz filtered through a melodically refined Gypsy-Tango style that is both elegant and enticing. Adriana and Ryan share the compositional workload, each bringing different themes and textures to the creative palette. Adriana’s smooth melodies create intricate soundscapes through which her voice flows like water and Ryan’s driving finger-style guitar and intense vocal prowess provide an excellent backdrop for his playful and poetic lyrics. Weave in the warm tones of Grace’s viola and you have a recipe for something truly unique: a tapestry of sound that you’re not likely to forget or hear anywhere else.

Update on Campbell Avenue

We’ve had a difficult few months downtown with major disruption to traffic due to construction work centered on Campbell Avenue. It’s been really frustrating for retailers and customers alike, but hopefully it will be worth it when all is finished and the new movie house opens early in the fall.

Here’s the latest from the UDA:

Campbell Avenue Construction Update

July 17, 2008

As we see the end in sight for the construction work, we’d like to provide an update on the remaining timeline for the Campbell Avenue closure.

Beginning Friday, July 18, Campbell Avenue will be  open to College Street and a left-turn will be available onto College.

By the following Friday, July 25, the Campbell/College intersection is expected to be completely open with left and right turns available onto College.

Campbell Avenue will have to remain closed north of the College Street intersection to complete repair work underneath Campbell and for construction of curb and gutter and sidewalk on Campbell between College and Olive.

Without too much additional bad weather, we anticipate this phase of the project to be completed by mid-August and Campbell can be fully re-opened to through traffic in time for the opening of Missouri State classes. If it is possible to temporarily re-open Campbell with at least one lane for the August First Friday Artwalk, we will work with the contractor on that.

In addition to the significant weather problems that caused delays throughout the spring and summer, there have been other factors that have contributed to the later-than-expected re-opening of Campbell. The primary factor has been the discovery of significantly worse sub-surface conditions under Campbell than anticipated at the start of the project. During the course of their work, the contractors have discovered a large amount of out-of-service utility infrastructure of many types – phone, water, sanitary sewer, electric, etc. Each time one of these utility issues has been uncovered, contractors have had to notify the appropriate utility and wait for inspections to make sure the utilities were not live for the safety of the work crews and to not disrupt service to customers.

The condition of the sub-surface also was worse than expected, likely as a result of the repeated construction projects for utilities, etc., over the years. So, it is requiring a higher degree of reconstruction than anticipated to improve the sub-surface before the final surface improvements are made. The process of replacing and “retiring” these utilities will greatly reduce the likelihood of needing to close Campbell for utility work in the future.

Once Campbell re-opens in mid-August, there will be no further full closures necessary on Campbell. Work on the Streetscapes surrounding College Station will continue into the fall and will necessitate some short-term partial side-street closures and potentially a short-term full closure on Market north of Olive. We will notify you of those schedules when they are more specific.

On behalf of the UDA, City staff and the contractors, we sincerely apologize for the inconveniences caused by the project, and particularly the delay of completion, for the businesses and customers. We hope that the final results will create both aesthetic and infrastructure improvements that will benefit the downtown area for many years to come. We look forward to celebrating the opening of the Hollywood Theaters this fall and the resulting traffic it will bring to the area.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact UDA at 831-6200.

Farewell Well Fed Head Books

You are probably aware by now of the impending move of Well Fed to the Freemont Center on Battlefield Road. KOLR10 covered the move on Thursday.

We’d barely started to get to know Mike and Beth, but from the little contact we have had, we know that we are losing good neighbors. I know from talking with Mike that he was passionate about helping downtown to revive and grow, but frustrated too at the stop/start rate of progress. At times too, it can seem like the odds are stacked against downtown traders – just now we have the combination of high gas prices and an economic downswing, coupled with Campbell Street having been a no-go zone for the past few months because of construction work.

We hope that Mike and Beth get the results they wish for in their new location. We also hope that we get another great neighbor when the new tenant arrives at the old Well Fed location. In the same vein, we’re really excited about the gallery space opening at Corner Printers, and we hear too that the empty building next to Hot Glass Studio is about to open back up. Progress downtown is always stop/start – but let’s just hope that we’re headed in the right direction in the long term.

Our Downtown Neighbors

When Cheri and I decided to make downtown the home for Global Fayre, we knew a number of key things: we liked downtown, it had a good representation of our core customers, we absolutely wanted to be part of the First Friday Art Walk….the list goes on.

What we didn’t know much about was our neighbors. We had been in to most of the stores down here, and the restaurants too, but had not spent enough time to get to know the people operating them. The real bonus for us since we’ve been here is just how great our neighbors are. I won’t name names, because I’m bound to miss someone and that would NOT be good – but if you’ve visited Global Fayre then you know who else is in the immediate neighborhood – and I have to say they are best that we could ask for.

So this is just a simple note to say THANK YOU to our neighbors, one and all – we’re very happy to be here! 

Convention & Visitors Bureau Tourist Information Center

We had a lovely visit yesterday from some of the volunteers at the Tourist Information Center on Battlefield Road.

As the new season kicks in, it was nice to see them come downtown to visit with Hot Glass Studio, Global Fayre, Springfield Pottery and Well Fed Head Books.

These people do a wonderful job, giving their time to share their love of Springfield with the many visitors that come here each year.

Thank you!