Joanne Layh | Special to the Fitzhugh
For some local merchants, Friday’s Moonlight Madness event is their busiest day of the year.
Over the years the annual shopping event has expanded into a weekend sale, but for consumers and merchants alike, Friday night remains a social event full of community spirit.
At Jasper Mercantile, Annie Baker said the event went really great.
“People were coming in and noticing our store for the first time because we’re new. It went great. We had a lot of new people in the store checking out our stuff. Because we’re new, a lot of people had never been here before,” Baker said, adding she would like to see the event continue in the future.
“As a consumer I’ve been taking part of Moonlight Madness for a long time and the evening is really social and it’s a really good time. I like it. It is a great day for everybody. As much as it is a shopping event, it is a social event for the community. It is because you get to see people you haven’t seen in a while. As a consumer, because I’ve been on both ends of this, as a consumer you see people you haven’t seen in a while and you chat and everybody’s really happy and visiting with each other,” Baker said.
Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce general manager Pattie Pavlov echoed Baker’s thoughts about the spirit of the event.
“Everybody wants to have some fun. Everybody wants to be social. It’s as much a visiting opportunity as it is a shopping opportunity. It’s a little bit of both. The upside is the economy and people are spending their money. It can be their busiest night of the year and in turn the businesses create a welcoming atmosphere. They’re giving good prices and creating that really warm community feeling. People are passing on the streets and after the busy summer that we have every year, it takes them until about now to start to really see people that you don’t see all summer because everyone is so busy, so it’s social. It’s as much a social thing as it is a shopping thing,” said Pavlov.
This year the weather cooperated and there were a lot of people out and about walking around the downtown.
Over at Liquor Lodge, operations manager Jacob Clark said the event was extremely successful for them. Both Liquor Lodge locations had various tastings over the weekend and saw many people pop in to try their offerings.
Pavlov said the free shopping bus from Hinton transported a load of visitors as well as the weekend’s hockey tournament that brought hockey moms into town, many of whom hit the shops to pick up some deals.
“Who is to say how many people we get in over and above the shopping bus that drive in when the weather is good like that? It is a different market for them than what they can necessarily pick up in Hinton. It’s just some different stuff and they like to come and shop in Jasper. It’s super relaxing,” Pavlov said.
Pavlov says she believes the event continues to be successful year over year because of the community atmosphere that the businesses put out there.
“Everybody gets into it. They’re excited for it and the shoppers look forward to it and might decide halfway through it’s time for a pint so they stop at the brew pub, have a pint and then carry on with their shopping. It’s great because it is that warm, fuzzy community feeling that you get . . . it’s awesome.”
Next year’s Moonlight Madness event will take place on Nov. 27.
