Tourisme Lac-Brome and the Town of Brome Lake have launched the first edition of Knowlton’s “Shop at Dusk” event. Shop at Dusk encourages residents and visitors to  support the local economy by extending business hours until 8 p.m. and offering promotions in the boutiques. Tourisme Lac-Brome approached local merchants and 24 businesses decided to take part. 

“At first, we just started talking with the merchants and just getting to know if they were interested in opening the stores late at night because we all know that as of 5 p.m., everything is closed everywhere,” said Maria Cordaro, head of tourism for the Town of Brome Lake. “Tourisme Lac-Brome, with the town, wanted to enhance and really help out tourism, but also help out the stores and support local businesses.” 

With the borders opening up for travel, Cordaro said that she recognized that this summer wouldn’t be as profitable for businesses compared to the last two years of the pandemic.  

“With people travelling elsewhere in other countries, I mean you see what’s on the news, we realized that this summer was not going to be a lucrative summer like all of the others. So, we wanted to do something extra to help the businesses stay open, to interact with the visitors,” she emphasized. 

Cordaro added that the event will be animated to create a certain ambiance that will encourage people to come back. 

“We are putting beautiful, nice music to entertain people and there is mobile entertainment. What I mean by that is that there are animators that are, for example, dressed in a butterfly costume talking to families, talking to children, there are magicians,” noted Cordaro. “There’s all kinds of animation to say hi to people coming here, visitors, and there’s just a beautiful interaction.”

Wanting to offer visitors something more than a regular shopping experience, businesses will be offering different promotions to shoppers. 

“What’s the difference between shopping from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. right? So, we asked the merchants can you do something extra. Some asked if they could serve tea between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., or can we give cookies, or give rebates. Most of them are giving rebates up to 75 per cent off in their boutique,” mentioned Cordaro. 

Two weekends of the Shop at Dusk have already taken place and Cordaro has so far received positive feedback from merchants. 

“For a first event, the stores told me that the people that did go to the stores and noticed the stores were open later, were very happy about that and actually spent. There were less people just walking around, just looking in the boutique, there were actual spenders,” noted Cordaro. 

For more information about Shop at Dusk. 

Listen to the full interview below: