“It’s raining. It’s pouring. Earth Fare is opening!”

This is a guest post written by Dayton’s Community Relations Coordinator, Emily Broughton.

I did a lot of off-beat things to promote the date October 19^th. My tent fell on me at the Popcorn Festival. I nearly fell into a river during a 20-mile bike race. I even dressed up as a cat at the mall.

To be honest, October 19^th seemed a long way out when I first started working for Earth Fare in August. And before I knew it, my trademark “Coming Soon!” catchphrase became “Welcome Home to Earth Fare!” as the doors opened that Wednesday morning.

I thought a lot about Opening Day:

• What would the crowds be like?
• What if there weren’t any people?
• Would that cat costume work to drive traffic to this new store?
• How would my community feel about this store I’ve grown to love?

October 19^th was cold.

And windy.

And pouring rain.

And despite all that, on October 19^th, the Dayton community came out to meet the Earth Fare Team and enjoy their new store.

After all the thinking about Opening Day, this is what I remember:

• CEO Jack Murphy had a Team Member’s excited young son do the ribbon cutting.
• The owner of the building spent the whole day volunteering to bag groceries in her suit and matching wide brimmed hat.
• It was freezing cold and poured rain.
• The bright blue color of the ceiling distracted us from the temporary ugliness outside.
• The community was genuinely impressed with our selection and our Team Members!

So even after October 19^th my off-beat marketing will continue, this time with a “Come visit us at Earth Fare!” tag.

The best part is that my Earth Fare Team Members are asking me how they can volunteer to help me with my community events. They even want to help me with one on Thanksgiving morning! I guess we truly are “all in this together.”

__________________________________________________________________

Want to know what happened during past store openings?
Huntersville
Akron
Montgomery
Tallahassee