It’s encouraging to hear that business owners saw increased foot traffic – and hopefully increased sales – through the two-week Sock Hop event that took place around the Easter holiday.

Randy Rossey, city codes officer, shared with council members recently that business owners were happy with the benefits they saw from the two-week business scavenger hunt. There are 16 businesses participating, with shoppers invited to hop from shop to shop in search of a special handmade bunny. Shoppers could get a punch card at any participating business, find the bunny hidden in each shop and receive a stamp on the card and then snap a selfie – which was optional – and tag the business and mention Explore Downtown Warren, PA to enter the selfie contest.

It’s a lesson that we should all remember. For all the talk about the importance of shopping local, online shopping and the rise of the big box store on the outskirts of town mean downtowns everywhere – not just Warren – have to work harder to get people downtown. That work can’t always revolve around events like concerts or parades. Downtowns have to figure out new ways to generate traffic. The Sock Hop was one such example of a new way to generate traffic. It’s absolutely hard work to coordinate businesses to participate and even harder work to find something that engages enough of the public to make the effort worthwhile. But, as we saw in April, these periodic traffic boosts are important for downtown businesses, particularly when they take place during times when business may otherwise be slow.

We hope Rossey is right when he says there will likely be more events like the Sock Hop. Such promotions, if executed correctly and with participation by enough downtown business owners, can generate the type of foot traffic, vitality and, dare we say it, fun that brings back memories of downtown shopping trips from decades ago.