Labor Day downer for local businesses

For many people Labor Day means barbecue, holiday travel and shopping for sales. But as people take off for the last holiday of the summer, many businesses downtown are getting hit hard with locals leaving town.

It’s no secret that downtown is home to novelty shops like Lemon Meringue that pique the interest of locals. But as Labor Day quickly approaches, shop owners say its a different story come Monday morning.

“With the fair and back-to-school it’s very, very slow,” said shop owner Linda Heiser.

Pandoras Baubles and Beads had plans to stay open this year, but it soon became clear to owner Yvonne Brown that staying open wasn’t an option.

“There are several wonderful shops around here but they all plan to be closed. So we decided to go ahead and stay closed with them,” she said.

Heiser says the reason for closing is a “no-brainer.”

“People have other priorities this weekend, so were going to close down on Monday,” said Heiser.

Priorities that lead people out of town and force downtown businesses to shut down.