Episode 17: Sip, Shop & Stroll

This episode takes a peek into the much-anticipated Sip, Shop, and Stroll event on April 20th. Sponsored by the Downtown Business Association, it's a day filled with shopping, interactive vendor stalls, food trucks, and family-friendly activities.

We are joined by Sherry Williams, an active organizer of this grand event, which has seen the participation grow each year. With over 148 vendors and 12 food trucks lined up, the offerings are vast and varied. Attendees can look forward to a collection of homemade, handmade treasures such as candles, boutique clothes, crocheted items, and delightful dog treats. It's a paradise of locally crafted items that add to the charm of this delightful day.

Sherry encourages all to visit the Glasgow Downtown Business Association Facebook page to get a glimpse of the event's map. The event is now expanded beyond the city square, luring visitors to stroll down Washington and Main streets. The Facebook page will also host updates on vendors, band performances scheduled for the day, and more such engaging information.

The Sip, Shop, and Stroll event also brings excellent opportunities for vendors to establish and maintain valuable customer relationships. Not just shopping, the event has something for everyone, including face painting for the young attendees, magic shows, and craft activities facilitated by the Y.M.C.A.

This event coincides with the 'Homegrown 5K Run' organized by Sustainable Glasgow giving it a lively, bustling atmosphere right from 7:30 in the morning. The event steps up the excitement, offering a glimpse of the city's transformation over the years; local restaurants serving up enticing menus and the first Bounty of the Barrens farmer's market set up of the year.

Be a part of this festive day, and be ready to sip, shop, and stroll in Glasgow city's beautiful Downtown. Don't miss to mark your calendar for April 20th!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:10):
Welcome once again to Henry's Dashboard Dialogues. That's where we are going
throughout the city of Glasgow looking across the dashboard at the wonderful
events, the beauty we have around here, all these things to celebrate.
And boy, do we have something that's going to be beautiful. We won't actually
be looking across the dashboard on April the 20th, but we'll be looking at the

(00:31):
wonderful Sip, Shop, and Stroll.
Stroll sponsored by the Downtown Business Association.
And we have Sherry Williams. She's been involved with the Sip Shop and Stroll before.
But certainly, I know this is an exciting time for the whole group,
Sherry, because of the fact that this event has grown.
It's got a lot of buzz going around town. You know, it's a much anticipated

(00:54):
event coming up here on April the 20th. Thank you so much for having us.
This will be our ninth Sip Shop and Stroll.
It's a rain or shine event. So, anticipate it being going on unless we have some high winds.
We've only had one where the winds prevented us from having the event.
We are just going to go ahead and put in our order for a gorgeous day.

(01:18):
Thank you. I ask all our vendors to say a little prayer for us.
Because it's fun. But what's the vendor count right now, Sherry?
Well, right now we have 148 vendors.
148 vendors. Right. And 12 food trucks slash tents. We have a couple that are coming in under a tent.

(01:39):
And that's quite a few vendors to try to get on the square.
So you'll notice this year, when you look at the map, it's gone beyond the square
and we're going down eastbound.
Washington and East Main. So really encourage people when they come to the event
to make the full circle through Plaza Way and work your way through all the

(02:01):
vendors that are set up on the square.
So you mentioned the word map, which is my opportunity for the first time to
say, so where is it we can get a peek at this map, Sherry?
Well, thankfully yesterday I met up with with the PVA folks,
and they helped me get the biggest map of Glasgow Square that they could come up with.
So right now I'm plugging all the vendors onto the square.

(02:24):
So after this weekend, the names of the folks that are going to be on the square,
they'll be plugged in with numbers.
And then we'll post that on our Glasgow Downtown Business Association Facebook page.
And that way they can look for their favorite vendors.
Because as you know, we've talked before, Over 50% of these vendors are from the Barron County area.

(02:47):
And we do have a lot coming from other communities as far away as Tennessee.
So we've gotten to be on the list
of folks that actually do this for their businesses as a place to come.
And they love Glasgow Square. This has become a thing.
Yes, I'd say so. I'd say so. And we're going to have excellent crowd,

(03:07):
a wonderful opportunity for people to come to Glasgow and see and enjoy what
we have and just kind of sip, shop, and stroll with a whole lot of wonderful,
wonderful vendors from here in Barron County.
Very much so. A lot of them are homemade, handmade vendors, so you get a lot

(03:28):
of candles, crocheted items.
We have a lot of boutique clothes that come in, a lot of dog treats.
We've got several vendors that have dog treats.
It's just a wide variety of things. You never know what you're going to find at a booth.
We have some of the craftiest people around here you've ever seen. You're exactly right.
And they love to come up here and show off their wares for sure because they make contacts.

(03:51):
They will begin an association with a customer that might not need something
now, but in four weeks, they're going to come find them. Exactly.
And I know while the parents are shopping, they're always looking for stuff
for the kids to do. So we do have a magician That'll be performing three times
On the square The YMCA is setting up.

(04:13):
Craft area they've always been so good to us to come
and and do crafts with the kids the far
off broadway players have a booth
on the south side and they're doing some face
painting for children and doing some other things that we haven't offered before
for kids to do we could sit here all day sherry and talk about it but you'd

(04:34):
still be a fool not to come exactly there's no way that we could we could tell
you everything you need to know and then let you make your decision,
you got to come. Just come.
And local restaurants will be open, the local shops.
I always challenge people that come to the square to walk from one shop to another.
Even it might not be something that you're interested in purchasing,

(04:55):
just go in and look to see how they fixed up these buildings on the square,
because it's really changed over the last 10 years.
From the city standpoint, we get so many positive comments about how beautiful
downtown is, is, how enjoyable it is to come down here.
It's these business owners that are down here and have invested in the buildings

(05:17):
they're in, invested in the inventory, invested into the employees, into the hours.
It really is something that we take every opportunity to show off.
And 148 vendors coming in to be a part of this expose is pretty impressive.
Well, thank you. Yeah, Now, it's a team effort.

(05:37):
Melissa Smith at Restore, she does a great job with welcoming the vendors.
She's the first person that they talk to.
She's a hustler. She's a hustler. I love working with her. She is good. She really is.
And the other thing you may want to know is that'll be the first day that the
farmer's market, Bounty of the Barrens, will be set up.

(05:57):
So they'll be set up with us. And then this event's a little bit unique because
the morning setup, there's actually going to be a 5K race going on.
Sustainable Glasgow's hosting their homegrown 5K run.
So it's going to be a little exciting in the morning, but we're all working

(06:18):
together to make sure that it's a smooth transition to shopping.
Well, it's going to be just a fun day indeed. You got to get that for sure on
the calendar. I'm sure a lot of folks have it on the calendar,
but how many hours that you and your group put in on this?
Just leading up to it, Melissa and I, quite a few hours, a lot of sleepless
nights, a lot of messaging back and forth.

(06:40):
But it all comes together, and we just love having the event on the square.
Yes, we just want it to be more enjoyable every time that we have it.
Let's do some specifics, Sherry. Let's talk about times.
When is it that the square will be shut down?
We will shut down the square at 6 o'clock in the morning. That's when our first...

(07:01):
Shift of vendors are going to come on the race
will kick off at 7 30 so there will
be a pause for our vendors coming on so once the
race is underway then about 8 30 some more vendors will come on but shopping
event will start at 10 o'clock okay all right and you can shop till 4 okay and
i i think that'll be plenty of shopping time well i mean you might want to break

(07:25):
in there Go to the 12 food trucks and several tents.
Yes, and then our local restaurants as well. I know that all the local restaurants
around the square here are going to have special events, special menus.
You need to plan on at least two meals while you're here. Exactly, exactly.
It'll be hard to narrow that down for sure. And we're going to have the Downtown

(07:48):
Glasgow Business Association Facebook page.
That'll be the updated spot with the most updated map. It'll have our list of
vendors, so if you're looking for somebody that you really like,
you can find what you're looking for.
I think it'd be cool to kind of like do a little homework and plan ahead.
Yes. The people that I want to see are over here, so by now and then later on

(08:09):
in the day, I'll get over here where I think that I want to do this.
That's a nice little addition to be able to have the Facebook with a map on
to where you can figure out where you're going.
Exactly. Exactly. And also, Andrew and Jenny Hubbell over at Yancey's will be
hosting bands pretty much all day. Right.
So once I get the list of the bands that will be performing,

(08:30):
we'll also post that as well. But you might want to bring your lawn chair.
What else do we need to talk about, Sherry, from the standpoint of Sip Shop
and Stroke? Look at your notes right there.
Yes, I'm looking. Well, we do need some volunteers.
Okay. Talk about that. One thing that we provide...
The event is the opportunity for the vendors to pull onto the square.

(08:51):
We help unload their cars and help set up tents.
And they are so thankful when we do that because that can be a hassle either
if they're by themselves or maybe old like me. Well, yeah, you're ancient.
When the vendors are setting up, they need maybe some help in addition to lift

(09:13):
some of these things to kind of cut down on the stationary traffic in the middle of the square, too.
Because that's always the challenge is getting people on and off the square.
Right. And if folks do want to volunteer, they can send a note on our Glasgow
Downtown Business Association Facebook page.
Okay. All right. And we're going to meet probably Friday night just to hand

(09:35):
out T-shirts. They'll get a free T-shirt.
Okay. All right. And then we'll show up bright and early on Saturday morning
and kick it off. The volunteers that you have had helping do this have invested
a lot of time in it. Very much so. Very much so.
And even your folks, Shelly Vance. Oh, listen. You know how I feel about Shelly. Oh, yes. Right.
Yeah, she is. The PBA office has been awesome.

(09:57):
Right. Chief Howie came to one
of our planning meetings, and so he's real interested in what's going on.
So let's just keep it a positive event. Yes, exactly.
Sherry Williams, she's with us, and she is on top of the Sip Shop and Stroll. April the 20th.
That's when it's going to be. Going to be coming downtown and enjoy Sip Shop and Stroll.

(10:18):
We'll have more information on the next edition of Henry's Dashboard Dialogues.
Music.