The Best Retail Practices is a three-part program beginning with a 2-hour workshop and presentation using visual examples of best retail practices. The workshop will be held Tuesday evening at 6:30pm on September 16th in the Assembly Room of the Federal Morse Building, 50 East Merrimack Street. Following the workshop, attendees may apply to be one of six participating businesses for in-store consultation which includes a store assessment and a written report with recommendations for improvements. The third part is an 80% matching grant of up to $2,500 for businesses that commit to making improvements as identified in the report.

“The appearance of my building certainly benefitted from the Best Retail Practices program,” said Karen Bell, owner of The Club on 80 Middlesex Street. “You can’t go past The Club and not notice the attractive new banners and landscape improvements resulting from my one-on-one session with Chris Graber. It was helpful for me to get professional advice on ways to easily and cost-effectively make immediate improvements to my business.”

The program comes out of the city’s Division of Planning and Development – Economic Development Office (DPD-EDO) and follows up on the City Manager’s Downtown Summit and ensuing effort to support small business and economic development. The DPD-EDO has selected Christine Graber from Graber Marketing to undertake the program. Ms. Graber has conducted similar work in Cambridge, MA and Nashua, NH

The presentation will be delivered in English; however, workshop materials and facilitators will be available to assist with Spanish, Portuguese and Khmer speakers. Information and applications for a special rebate from National Grid is also included in this presentation.  This program replaces old lighting fixtures with new, energy efficient ones helping small businesses significantly reduce their electric bills every month. 

For more information on Best Retail Practices or the National Grid Small Business Rebate Program please call the Economic Development Office at (978) 446-7200 or email bestretail@lowellma.gov.  While all are invited, seating is limited and pre-registration is recommended. Attendance at the workshop by a principal of the business is a mandatory pre-requisite in the application process for the $2,500 grants.