Local businesses blame detours for dwindling sales
JACKSON, Tenn. — Local businesses are blaming slumping sales on construction work. Staff with Yarbro’s Antique Mall reached out to WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News about their concerns about Carriage House Drive remaining closed weeks after they say they were told the crews would be finished. “We were told it would be done in two weeks,” Andrea Bell, manager of the antique store, said. Jackson city workers were hauling, scraping and repairing a portion of Carriage House on Thursday. “It started sort of mid October,” Bell said, “And it’s still closed down.” We spoke with several businesses along the usually busy road who all said the extended work weeks are causing sales to tank. “It’s slowed down to a trickle because people don’t want to deal with construction and the detours through the neighborhood to get here,” Bell said. One retailer said the problem isn’t the closed portion of the road but rather that potential shoppers don’t realize the shops in between the detour at Wallace Road and the closed signs are still open for business. Gail Herndon works at Westside Cleaners. She said driver confusion has actually cost customers more money. “She didn’t think she could get through. She went and bought her three pairs of pants,” Herndon said. Bell said she’s worried sales won’t be able to recover for the holiday season. “We only have 36 days left before Christmas, so this is really eating up all the Christmas sales for these stores.” City officials said they allocated six weeks for the project and expect Carriage House to reopen Monday.
