EDITOR’S NOTE — See related story today, “Outside magazine: Port Angeles ‘can compete with just about anyplace'” — https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150820/NEWS/308209993
PORT ANGELES — Outside magazine has highlighted Brown’s Outdoor as the town’s best outfitter.
Eric Brown of Brown’s Outdoor — spotlighted in the magazine’s September issue published Tuesday about the top 16 communities from which to get away from it all — says the contest produced an uptick in his trade at 112 W. Front St.
Better yet, the contest and its attendant excitement have boosted downtown businesses’ pride in themselves and improved their care for customers, he said.
In turn, more shoppers are happier and spending more, Brown said.
Outside’s article “helps us showcase our skills in getting people into the right kind of equipment for our area,” Brown said Wednesday, minutes after learning the magazine had singled out his business as “an awesome place to get geared up.”
The magazine also called attention to the store’s start almost a century ago and its continuation through four generations as a family business now owned and operated by Eric and Evan Brown.
The Browns at Brown’s “give locals a well-curated selection of hiking and backpacking gear so they can hit Olympic National Park,” Outside said in its report on Port Angeles and 15 other finalists in its online contest.
The competition in which Port Angeles came in a close second to much-larger Chattanooga, Tenn., has been a boon for business, Brown said, and for the atmosphere downtown.
“We’ve seen an effort to sweep more, clean up the streets, be more welcoming to tourists, put up more decorations in more storefronts,” he said.
That’s also been the aim of Revitalize Port Angeles, the grass-roots group that sparked the city’s beating five competing cities in Outside’s “Best Town Ever” contest that ended in early June.
Customers, especially out-of-town visitors, have noticed the change, he said.
“It seems that consumers are coming in off the streets and saying how surprised they are at how many restaurants there are, and how helpful people are, giving them directions,” he said.
Rather than driving straight from the Black Ball Ferry Line terminal toward Hurricane Ridge or other outdoor destinations, more passengers of the MV Coho are lingering in downtown to explore, he said.
“We’ve seen this shift in attitude in how we represent ourselves,” Brown said of the city’s newfound pride. “It’s a more vibrant downtown business community.”
To read what Outside says about Brown’s Outdoor in “Visiting One of the Best Towns in America? Visit Their Best Outfitters, Too,” click on http://tinyurl.com/PDN-bestoutfitters.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
