
{"id":20660,"date":"2011-09-08T11:26:53","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T15:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20660"},"modified":"2011-09-08T11:26:56","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T15:26:56","slug":"construction-takes-toll-on-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/08\/construction-takes-toll-on-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction takes toll on business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Caroline Kilaru<br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It takes some pluck these days to get to The Red Hen.<\/p>\n<p>The resale and gift boutique, which caters to mothers and young children, is in crisis due to the construction on Weaver Street. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since construction started in April, our sales have been down 40 to 50 percent,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The Red Hen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s owner, DeeDee Lavinder, said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made our financial situation unsustainable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20661\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20661\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/09\/08\/construction-takes-toll-on-business\/red-hen_0878\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20661\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Red-Hen_0878.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Red-Hen_0878\" width=\"400\" height=\"336\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Red-Hen_0878.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Red-Hen_0878-113x94.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Red-Hen_0878-134x113.jpg 134w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Red-Hen_0878-100x84.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20661\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Lavinder family in front of The Red Hen, clockwise from top left, DeeDee, James, Hogan, Avis and Rina.  Photo By Caroline Kilaru<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThe construction, which closed the east block of Weaver Street from March through July, began on The Red Hen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s block, between Greensboro and West Main streets, in July. The project is scheduled for completion next March. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Business has been spiraling down since construction started,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lavinder said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened is that people are avoiding Carrboro.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The Red Hen isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the first business to suffer during the construction. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were problems on East Weaver Street, where the Spotted Dog and Maple View Ice Cream shop in particular saw declining sales, and the town made some efforts and some other businesses banded together to support them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Dan Coleman said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153With the current situation, it is unclear what the pedestrian access is, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something the town can improve. But something that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anticipated \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and we were between economic-development directors \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is the extent to which one block at a time of construction would create a disincentive for even regular customers to access a business,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coleman said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a really hard summer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lavinder said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been unsure what to do. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the right tone in my mind about saying to customers, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re having trouble, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re begging folks to come,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or just quietly shutting down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Lavinder shared the details of her situation with Langley Thomson, a friend and mother to two small children. The next day, Thomson began coordinating an effort to save The Red Hen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had this idea to throw a party to draw attention to DeeDee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s situation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thomson said. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s organized an event for Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a full day, from live music by Jimmy Magoo at 2 p.m. to face painting, a raffle and baby-wearing support by Triangle Babywearers Group,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>The event will also feature parent\/child yoga, kids\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arts and crafts and vegan and gluten-free baked goods.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Neal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Deli and KatieBeth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Learning Garden are also offering discounts to anyone showing a Red Hen receipt,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thomson said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the two reasons we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had such an immense reaction to save the store is the Red Hen is a community-focused business, and people have great affection for DeeDee as a person,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153DeeDee is so generous and warm, and she runs her business in a way that reflects her values,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Customers say the quality of the store makes it valuable to the community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When I bring friends from out of town to The Red Hen, they are blown away. They all wish that they had similar consignment stores where they live,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Christina Wright Bohanek, one of the store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regular customers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would be devastated if they close.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Lavinder said the outpouring of support for her store has been a little surreal. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As a business owner, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not asking for donations or handouts. We just want people to come shop,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re coming up on five years at the Red Hen, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to think about the store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going under right before our anniversary. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 All because of this logistical piece that we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work around.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Caroline Kilaru<\/strong><br \/>\nIt takes some pluck these days to get to The Red Hen.<br \/>\nThe resale and gift boutique, which caters to mothers and young children, is in crisis due to the construction on Weaver Street. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20665,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20660\/revisions\/20665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}