GREENSBORO, N.C. — Some downtown Greensboro businesses saw a boom over the weekend as the city closed Elm Street to cars, and opened it up for pedestrians for outdoor dining and shopping.
Karmen Bulmer, general manager at Little Brother Brewing, said they would reach capacity occasionally before open streets started, but it happened more often this weekend.
"This weekend we reached capacity for maybe two or three hours straight to where people would try and enter but we would just let them know you have to come back at another time," she said.
After seeing how great the first weekend went, Bulmer said they're looking at participating in the outdoor seating portion of the event.
"It was great to see all the people in the restaurants outside eating. What brought it on for us was seeing people really adhere to the safety measures," she said.
Dan Weatherington owns Gate City Candy, and said Saturday was busier than Friday for him.
"It was a little slow during the day but I did see an increase in the afternoons," he said.
Businesses even teamed up together to encourage people to shop local.
Weatherington is located right across from Vintage to Vogue, just one of the businesses customers would get a discount at if they bought something from Weatherington's store.
"We were trying to get customers to go to other stores," he said.
Vintage to Vogue Boutique owner Jennifer Graf said it helped engage people while shopping downtown.
"Bring the receipt from either one of our stores and the other would provide a discount so it was kind of fun," she said.
Graf said the business her boutique saw this weekend reminded her of better days.
"It definitely was a good weekend. It reminded us about what it was like before the COVID pandemic popped off," she said.
Zack Matheny with Downtown Greensboro Incorporated said they plan to close Elm Street down every weekend in August for the open streets event.
Elm Street will be closed from Market Street to Lewis Street.