Downtown all-in for Saturday’s sidewalk sale

HARLINGEN — Business owners in the city’s historic downtown are preparing a new lure for shoppers — the sidewalk sale.

Downtown merchants promise “blocks and blocks” of merchandise this Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on historic Jackson Street.

“The downtown will be full of vendors with tables set up,” downtown Manager Edward Meza said yesterday. “It’s just a sidewalk sale — no streets are going to be closed, just tables on the sidewalk.”

Meza said several dozen downtown district businesses are committed to the sale.

“This is the first one that will be district-wide,” Meza added.

Items to be included in the sale are antiques and collectibles, sports team merchandise, clothing, plants, jewelry, furniture, food, artworks and health and beauty items, organizers say.

Beth Fuqua, owner of J&B’s Café, was a prime mover in making the district’s first sidewalk sale a reality.

“Basically all the merchants are going to put some stuff out in front try to build up more downtown traffic,” she said yesterday.

But already, she said, public interest in the sale is strong, at least on social media.

“We’ve had a huge, huge turnout on Facebook and we were blown away,” Fuqua said.

“If it works, they’re going to try to do it every two months,” she said.