“A home furnishings hub… that might just work!”
According to the Daily News Leader in their August 7, 2003 issue, the city of Waynesboro is trying to remarket themselves as a destination for people looking for home furnishings. This would make the city similar to Farmville several hours away, which is well-known as a furniture hub. In fact, we have some furniture in the house that Mom doesn’t let us use that came from Farmville. Lots of cute places to get furniture. For Waynesboro, I think it just might work. Currently, in my opinion, Waynesboro has nothing interesting that’s available on a regular basis, aside from the P. Buckley Moss Museum. It especially pales compared to Staunton a few miles down the road, which has invested a lot of money in its image with their “big dig”, which transformed West Beverley Street from a typical old street into a gorgeous downtown, with restored buildings, a nearby Shakespearean theater, retro fixtures, and a brick sidewalk. Very cute. I like it. Waynesboro by comparison looks just a tad run down, especially with a near-empty Outlet Village (pictured at left) sitting in a highly-visible location, rotting away. Now I think making Waynesboro into the Farmville of the Shenandoah Valley is going to work. And here’s why. Home furnishing is not one of Staunton’s specialties. They have a couple of furniture stores, but nothing special. Staunton is heavy on arts and culture, with the Blackfriars Theater (the aforementioned Shakespeare playhouse) and other kinds of fun stuff going on. Now for someone who likes the arts, like my mother does, that person would also decorate their house with nice artistic furniture. So on the way back from a Shakespearean play, people go by Waynesboro, and say, “Oh, what lovely furniture stores! We should stop and see!” And people love the furniture and buy something. I sincerely hope that Waynesboro does well with their furniture-hub remarketing, and think it will add a lot to not only the area, but also the furniture we’re not allowed to actually use at our house.
Date posted: August 17, 2003
Notes: This picture of the Outlet Village was taken in June 2002 for a quote article concept that was ultimately not used about the then-proposed Wal-Mart to be going up near the Outlet Village. The title would have been, "Put the Outlet Village out of its misery already!" but the discussion was never really fleshed out. The Wal-Mart opened in January 2004, and I would work there for a few years in the mid-2000s.