Grassroots of Tarboro

As co-owner of The Unusual Shoppe I am given the opportunity to meet tourists visiting Tarboro.  Visiting antique shops, art galleries and oddity shops such as ours are what tourists like to do, so we're almost like the unofficial visitors center.

Today a nice retired couple choose Tarboro as a meeting destination for friends. They were coming from Virginia and their friends were coming from The Outer Banks, so Tarboro seemed like a good place to meet. They spent nearly an hour poking through the store having a great time discovering things they used to own as children and other things they'd never seen before.  Then one of the gentlemen asked me, "how do I get to the restaurants from here?".  (I thought to myself, "the restaurants?")  I suggested Myrick's Barbecue right across the street, but barbecue wasn't what they had in mind, so I told them about On The Square and that was more like what they were looking for.  "Any other restaurants?",  they asked.   It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, they didn't want Southern grill cooking and they didn't want fast food.  I didn't know anywhere else to suggest. 

Last Saturday a group of ladies from Illinois visiting Tarboro for a Cousins Weekend, stopped by The Unusual Shoppe and had a grand time laughing at the odd things in store and finding a few treasures they couldn't live without.  One of the ladies asked me, "Why are so few stores open in your downtown?" and I told her the truth.  Many of the stores are not open on Saturday because there are not enough customers and there are not enough customers because many of the stores are closed.  It's a Catch-22 situation, "the circle game" going counter-clockwise. 

As a founding member of Grassroots of Tarboro, I find it frustrating that the town officials would even consider spending money marketing the town at this stage of the game.  We need to revitalize our downtown. We need to realize that small businesses are just as important as huge businesses to a town's health.  We need to be seeking ways of subsidizing small businesses to attract them to our downtown and our newly refurbished malls and assist them in surviving for the first year or so.  With more unique businesses and restaurants we could attract more people to town.  If we attracted more people to shop and dine in Tarboro, we would attract more new businesses. Aha! There's that circle game again, but this time it's turning in the right direction.

I also talk to the people, tourists AND residents, about what they'd like to find in Tarboro.  For restaurants, the people want options for healthier food, a simple restaurant with a super salad bar, soups and fresh-made whole-grain breads would be a big hit. Many people have expressed an interest in a vegetarian restaurant, a natural bakery, a Whole Foods grocery store and a thriving Farmers Market.  Today's people are much more health conscious, they want to be able to find healthy alternatives close to home.  For shopping... several people have talked about consignment clothing stores which I think would be a big hit.  The older women would love a clothing department store downtown. I also hear a great deal of talk about gallery type stores where the talented local artists and artisans can display and sell their art. 

As more and more people move into Tarboro, they bring with them the knowledge of a world-full of wonderful things and interesting places outside of Edgecombe County.  They, like myself, have chosen this beautiful little town as "home", but they know little changes could make a big difference in the quality of life for everyone.

 We do not want Tarboro to change because we don't like what it has to offer, we wouldn't be here if that were the case.  We just want Tarboro to experience enough growth to make it healthy and vibrant and to create a plan for the future that will maintain the health of the town for generations to come.

To quote John Lennon, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. "