Local shop and restaurant owners in the town of Olomouc are hoping to bring life back to the center by banding together with a common marketing platform. It’s the brainchild of Roman Štěpánek, a local citizen who says it’s inefficient for individual restaurant owners to advertise and promote on their own. He says the problem is the city’s main shopping center Šantovka, which has swept up all the business off the streets for itself. “I keep hearing that the center is dead and that no one is doing anything about it. From these same people I hear that they’re doing something,” he says. His solution is to create a single platform for downtown businesses called OC Střed, which translates as Central Shopping Center. The idea would be to organize and promote events together in order to bring people downtown. Aktualne.cz writes that some shop owners don’t see the point in this initiative, including one fruits and vegetables grocer. “In view of what we sell, one-time events won’t help us. What would hep us would be parking spots and better car access to the center. That’s what the shopping centers have,” he says, complaining that business has slowed so much that he thinks often about closing his shop.
