Downtown Lafayette Business Owner Reflects on Challenges and Hopes for 2025

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Transcript

00:00Last year, Star City spoke to downtown businesses on how the year ended and now being in the first week of 2025,

00:06how has the year been treating downtown Lafayette so far?

00:09I spoke with the owner of Essentially Aqua, Aurora Wilson, for an update since the last year.

00:14It's a brand new, fresh start, so of course we're always really excited about what the next coming year is going to hold for the business

00:20and what we're going to do and some of the exciting products that we're going to roll out and stuff like that.

00:23Aside from Wilson's excitement, there seems to be a sort of worry in downtown Lafayette for business at the moment.

00:28So this is my fifth Christmas season downtown and we're just not seeing people come out like they were even in 2021.

00:35I feel like sales are down and so things are just looking a little bleaker.

00:40And so I know that a lot of us business owners that are in the downtown area have some concerns and worries about what does 2025 hold for us.

00:48While walking around Lafayette today, I realized Wilson was right. There wasn't anyone out today shopping.

00:53These are established businesses, so I think the collective right now is there's a little concern about numbers being down.

01:00Essentially Aqua's really leaning into 2025, into being Lafayette's primary soap shop.

01:05I want this to be the place that when you think, OK, I need to get ready in the morning and I want to take care of my skin,

01:10this is the place that you go and maybe not that other place in the mall.

01:13Even though the end of 2024 and the first week of 2025 have been weird, Wilson still holds excitement for the year to come.

01:19It's not just about, you know, the stuff that I sell. You're helping your community.

01:23So help yourself, help your community, help downtown thrive because it's gorgeous.

01:27And I would like to see it continue to be just as beautiful as it is.

01:30Remember, shopping small can make such a huge difference in your community.

01:34Mattson Deal, Star City News, downtown Lafayette.