Today is a big day in Kingstree. Cameras are rolling at six area businesses, filming footage for two commercials–three businesses on each commercial–which when finished will air 168 times a week for six months on yet to be determined channels that are part of FTC's Vision-TV.
The six businesses include Bee Hive Gifts, The Paisley Pearl, and Holt's Jewelry & China on Academy Street; Personalize It on Mill Street; Fancy Pants on Main; and Williamsburg Feed & Tack on Thurgood Marshall Highway.
Bee Hive Gifts at 110 N. Academy St. advertises beautiful gifts at a sweet price.
The Paisley Pearl, 136 N. Academy, offers women's clothing at reasonable prices.
Find jewelry, watches, china, gifts, and jewelry repair at Holt's Jewelry & China, 139 N. Academy St.
After William Freeman, the Director of Main Street, Kingstree, kept seeing a similar ad promoting businesses in Bishopville, he wondered if local businesses would be interested in pursuing that avenue for marketing themselves. After surveying several businesses and finding there was interest, he contacted FTC and Prime Media to work our arrangements. The businesses will cover half the cost of the advertising with the Town of Kingstree covering the other half from accommodations tax monies which the town can spend only on things that promote tourism in the area.
Personalize It, 107 E. Mill St, offers Southern styles with a modern-day twist
from apparel to monogrammed gifts.
William also contacted officials in Bishopville to get their feedback on how advertising in this way has affected their businesses. They told him it had done wonderful things for them and that they were pleased with the return they'd seen from investing in television advertising.
Fancy Pants on Main, 110 E. Main St., has ladies' clothing, handbags, and some jewelry.
William says the six businesses involved have agreed to keep track of how their customers learned of them during the six months the ad runs. If they see an increase in business, the town will consider another six months of advertising and invite other businesses to participate. FTC will also provide its analysis of market reach.
Williamsburg Feed & Tack, 2153 Thurgood Marshall Highway,
carries a wide variety of animal feed, clothing, and boots in brand names.
Advertising swirls around us constantly in our day-to-day lives, and it's hard to imagine how our ancestors who ran businesses set themselves apart from others who ran similar businesses. Word-of-mouth from satisfied customers has always been, and still is, one of the most potent tools any business has at its disposal. Back in the early 1900s, there was newspaper advertising, but beyond that shopkeepers had to rely on some novel approaches to draw customers to their goods.
You might think that local merchants had a more-or-less captive clientele in those horse-and-buggy days before cars and better roads made it easy to travel out of town to shop. You would be wrong. Long before the first cars ever came to the area, local ladies would hop on the train to Charleston, carrying with them empty trunks to fill with the goods they planned to buy. Sometimes they'd spent the night in the city, but just as often, they'd return on the evening train with their trunks full.
Twice a year in Kingstree in the early 1900s, the stores selling general merchandise held big open houses to showcase the latest styles, particularly in ladies' hats. The Spring open houses were especially elaborate as this was the time for Easter fashions and the proverbial Easter bonnet.
In March, 1910, The County Record noted in a rare fashion critique, "The prevailing style seems to run to size, and some of the pattern hats are simply huge." That spring, Anne Marcus was displaying a variety of tailored hats at S. Marcus on Main Street, while Gale & Gale, a Main Street shop devoted solely to ladies' millinery, was extremely busy showing off their many designs. One of the Misses Gale, however, took time from waiting on customers to answer a question from the newspaper. She was asked about the "Chantecler" style which was extremely popular that spring. She replied that she endeavored to avoid anything so extreme as wearing a rooster on one's head, as was typical of the Chantecler.
S. Marcus ad from the March 17, 1910, issue of The County Record.
Gale & Gale's advertisement from the same issue of The County Record.
Mamie Shafer, the milliner at Kingstree Dry Goods, had to bring in several assistants for the open house to help her show the many pattern hats she had for sale.
Kingstree Dry Goods' 1910 Spring Opening was on the same two days as other merchants.
One name missing from the 1910 open houses was that of Sadie Eron, who had capably run the store of J.S. Eron, ever since her husband's untimely death, and was usually much involved in the ladies' hat extravaganzas. Sadie, who by the way was Isadore Goldstein's older sister, had just married David Silverman of Atlanta, and was settling into her new life there.
William Freeman and the local merchants hope the television spots will attract new customers from other areas to Kingstree and maybe remind some local residents that downtown Kingstree's shops can compete favorably with those of larger towns.
Photos by Linda Brown
CONGRATULATIONS to Main Street, Kingstree, for receiving the HomeTown Chamber's Image Award at the annual chamber banquet last week.
REQUEST: I'm interested in finding out if anyone has pictures of the following that they would share with us: the Louis Jacobs house and/or gardens once located where Hardee's is now. Any of the gardens adjoining the Nelson House on the corner of Main and Academy where the fruit stand is now. Any of the Gilland house where the old elementary school is or any of either of the Singleton houses--one was behind the Gilland home; the other was on property that is now part of Kingstree United Methodist Church's parking lot. Any of the homes and/or gardens of Dr. D.S. Scott and W.H. Kennedy that were on Railroad Avenue. If you have photos and would be willing to share, leave a comment at the bottom of this post with an email address or phone number. Your address and phone number won't be posted, but I will get back to you. Thanks.
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