photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-World File Photo

The sun warms up shoppers outside Weaver’s Department Store at the corner of Ninth and Massachusetts streets during the annual Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale, Thursday, July 18, 2019.

One of downtown Lawrence’s premier events is looking to cool off. Officials with Downtown Lawrence Inc. have announced that they are moving the Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale from its usually blazing-hot date in July to early September.

Sally Zogry, executive director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., told me part of the decision was related to the pandemic, but part of it was just a growing sense that a different, potentially more comfortable time of year might be a good change for the 60-year old event.

“As our ownership mix in downtown ages, I think some of them don’t want to be out in the heat all day,” Zogry said. “I think there are plenty of younger owners that don’t want to be out in the heat either. The heat really is a factor.”

Current plans call for the sale to take place on Thursday, Sept. 9. As in the past, the sale will run from sunup to sundown.

The pandemic caused Downtown Lawrence Inc. to cancel last year’s sale. Zogry said some pandemic considerations still played into this latest change. There’s some concern about lower vaccination rates of surrounding counties and what that might mean in terms of a large crowd that often has a high number of out-of-town visitors.

But Zogry said an equally large factor is store inventory. Normally, retailers use the sidewalk sale to clear out some seasonal inventory to make way for new items. But some retailers don’t have an oversupply of inventory to move, as supply-chain issues have interrupted deliveries or retailers have purposely kept inventories lower during the pandemic.

Zogry said the Downtown Lawrence Inc. board decided to move the event after surveying downtown retailers. In a message to members, the board said those survey results found the number of businesses that would participate with an outdoor booth in July was “very low.”

“When you have a sidewalk sale and there are not that many people on the sidewalk, it is not very exciting,” Zogry said.

The sidewalk sale is expected to be the first major public event in downtown since the pandemic, and Zogry said board members wanted to make sure it made a good impression.

“The board felt strongly that any time we have a sidewalk sale and there are only a limited number of stores participating, it doesn’t look good for our downtown as a whole,” the board said in a message to members. “And we really want to act as a whole right now, instead of many unrelated parts to help downtown come out of the pandemic by putting our best foot forward.”

In that vein, Zogry said Downtown Lawrence Inc. leaders would work to add a few new attractions to the sidewalk sale. She said there hopefully would be some sort of live music concert on the evening of the event; ideas of doing events in conjunction with the Lawrence Arts Center, Watkins Museum and other such organizations also have been discussed.

Zogry also said there’s a possibility some downtown retailers will have sidewalk sales on the traditional date, which this year was scheduled for July 15. The board said Downtown Lawrence Inc. would help those retailers promote those sales through DLI’s social media channels and help with coordination with City Hall, “but we will not be promoting the July date as the official Downtown Sidewalk Sale event this year.”

With 60 years of history, the event has gained a large following who mark their calendars for the third Thursday in July. It is believed that has been the date for the entire 60 years of the sale. Historically, the sale has attracted thousands of shoppers from a large regional area.

Given that, I doubt the decision to move the sale will be universally loved by all members of the downtown retail community. It will be interesting to watch both what happens on July 15 and how the new version of the sale comes together. Depending on its success, there certainly could be talk about making that date more permanent, although the board did not address the future of the sale beyond this year in its statement to members.