Local businesses treated with foot traffic

Instead of houses, families went trick or treating store-to-store down Foothill Boulevard two days before Halloween on Friday.

There was no need to knock as most shops left their doors wide open to greet everyone. The event, arranged by the La Cañada Merchants Connection, allowed the community to establish or strengthen relationships with their La Cañada business owners.

“I am just trying to generate community events to get everyone in the community out on the street,” said Sue Stranger, owner of Adobe Design and head of the La Cañada Flintridge Merchants Connection. “What better place for these kids to trick or treat than with their local merchants?”

Young kids dressed in their Halloween best walked up and down the street with their parents, stopping in shops to pick up some extra candy, which brought some extra exposure for local stores. Hopes are the constant foot traffic seen Friday will one day be common for local businesses, Stranger said.

“We are working really hard to try and make La Cañada pedestrian friendly,” Stranger said. “The town should be and unfortunately it’s not. We need to make it pedestrian friendly and things like this will eventually just do that.”

Although this is the first year the La Cañada Merchants arranged a trick-or-treating event, a similar outing was hosted during Easter, which was very successful. The Merchants are also planning a Merry Mingle for when Christmas comes to town.

The Crescenta-Cañada YMCA served as the unofficial starting point of the day as many families gathered there to grab their first piece of candy and hop on a shuttle to take them to the rest of the businesses down Foothill.

“This event absolutely epitomizes the small-town La Cañada spirit and that’s why we love it here,” said Kim Beattie, the director of communications for the Crescenta-Cañada YMCA.

Stranger hopes everyone got a taste of the small-town service they can expect from small, local businesses.

“As large as La Cañada is, when you do these kind of events it becomes much more of a small community,” Stranger said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”