Downtown employees support area businesses in more than one way, according to a new survey.
A survey issued by the Pike County Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown Committee found that most employees shopped and ate downtown at least once a week.
Adam Drinkwater, chairman of the committee, shared this and many other findings at Wednesday’s monthly meeting.
He said the survey provided a clearer understanding of those who spend the most time in downtown Troy. The committee plans to survey other populations. In this, the first-ever survey, Drinkwater said the downtown workforce was an appropriate place to start.
“It makes the most sense for the people here every day to have the initial input because they’re the ones most affected by downtown improvements,” he said.
The committee established a historic commercial district through a federal grant that covered the costs of doing an historical survey. In order to do so, the ages of several downtown buildings had to be established. The historic commercial district has been recognized by the state. The committee is still working on federal recognition.
Drinkwater said the survey would help the committee determine the area’s uses and areas for improvement.
“We established a commercial historic district … and the idea behind it was, ‘Now that we have this district, let’s see what the people in that district desire that district to be,’” he said. “We think we’ve got something special downtown and we want to know about it.”
In the two months the online survey was open, about 100 people responded.
Drinkwater was as surprised by the demographics of the area as he was the responses to questions. Most surprising to him was the diversity of ages. The survey found an even distribution of generations working in the downtown area.
“Another thing I was surprised by was how often people shopped downtown,” he said.
He expected to find employees were eating downtown, but was pleasantly surprised to find they were shopping weekly, too.
The committee may hire someone to analyze and compile the survey’s findings. The information could lead to new marketing campaigns and come in handy when recruiting new businesses to the area.
“We hope to make it a regular, if not annual, survey,” said Drinkwater. “We hope to do other types of surveys, too.”