Store Owners Make Changes to Typical Midnight Madness
Even throughout the pandemic, events like Midnight Madness were still held this year by the Hartford community allowing a sense of normalcy to end an unusual year.
Midnight Madness is an annual event located in downtown Hartford which involves all the businesses to have sales and mark down prices. This year Midnight Madness was still able to remain the same and store owners made little changes to accommodate.
Local Collective owner Kayla Gerard said she is unsure how COVID will affect this year's Midnight Madness. She was not sure how to prepare or even what to expect.
“We are hoping it is going to be busier than usual just because people want to get out.” Gerard said.
This year the Local Collective has added on more space to the shop and they also have more venders. For Midnight Madness they still did their typical spin and win game that they have done in previous years.
As far as what part of Midnight Madness she was looking forward to this year Gerard said, “Just being open.”
Faith and Giggles participated in Midnight Madness for the ninth time this year. The owners started at 9a.m. instead of the typical 6p.m. This gives customers the opportunity to shop all day so they could potentially avoid large crowds.
“What we have done this year is to be safer about it and spread the crowd thinner,” Faith and Giggles owner Jason Wix said.
This year Faith and Giggles also split up doorbuster sales with some starting at 9 a.m. and some at 6 p.m.
Junior Avery Zangl attended this year's Midnight Madness event. She has attended Midnight Madness in previous years and she noticed that it seemed to be a bit less busy however it could have been due to the weather.
“It was exciting to be able to see downtown Hartford alive again,” Zangl said.
“For us it's being in the community now for over nine years,” Wix said. “We've built a lot of great relationships with people in the community and this is a night that a lot of them come out and do shopping and enjoy the experience.”
