ABOUT THE NRC
Newburyport Retailers Know How to Have Fun.
By Danielle Evans Cole of NORTHSHORE MAGAZINE
As you wander the streets of Downtown Newburyport taking in the sea salt laced air and balancing on cobblestone paths, you will meet shopkeepers with enthusiastic smiles and a passion for engaging with their customers.
Last fall, five of these store owners, Jen Perry owner of Illume Books, Debra Green owner of Greetings By Design, Valerie Stainton, owner of Valerie's Gallery, Dianne Sirard owner of Soak & Shoreline, and Patrice Sweeney, owner of The Wild Clover, came together with a common vision. The five formed a steering committee in September 2024 that grew into the official launch of the Newburyport Retail Collective (NRC) in January 2025.
In under three months, the NRC has 17 retail members and is quickly growing. Green, who has owned her card and gift shop in Newburyport since 2008, stresses the NRC is about collaboration, communication, and lifting up the entire Newburyport retail community.
"We want everyone to be successful. If someone goes out of business next to me or any other business and they have brown paper windows, that's not good..this whole thing is geared around us supporting each other and sending business to each other. "
emphasizes Green.
Membership in the NRC is restricted to any brick-and-mortar retail store in Newburyport and requires a fee and active participation in the NRC's activities and events.
According to the NRC's executive director, Eben Diskin, "We're Chamber members and non-Chamber members. We believe collaboration is the best way to create a positive con- sumer experience. And we're excited to work with anyone and everyone who supports our mission." Diskin came aboard to help guide the NRC's organizational operations as well as handling media relations.
The NRC's first event was the NBPT Holiday Shopping Spree held in December 2024 with twenty participating retailers. Shoppers needed to purchase items from ten of the twenty stores to be entered into a raffle for shopping spree vouchers. "We had so much excitement from shoppers. We surveyed the shop owners after the event and they all said they had increased sales, had fun, and wanted to do it again.
In March of 2025, the NRC spread gold shamrocks and St. Patrick's Day fun and giveaways with the NBPT Shamrock Shop Hop. Shoppers had the chance to win a $150 Port Tavern Gift Card by finding hidden gold shamrocks at participating shops, tagging on social media, making purchases, and even by repeating "Shamrock Shop Hop" 10 times in 15 seconds. The NRC's first collaboration will be with Tinkerhaus, a Newburyport nonprofit dedicated to sustainability and community engagement, City Hall, Newburyport Schools, and the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce. For the Paint the Town Green event on the weekend of April 12 and 13 2025, Newburyport students (grades 5-8) used the theme "Our Power, Our Planet" to paint Earth Day-themed murals on participating store windows. A map guided shoppers around the area to each window front where they had a chance to vote for their favorite mural via a QR code by going inside the store.
As a long time retailer, Green loves that "there are different perspectives from all the different businesses, and it's really a great source of learning from each other." She is personally touched by the positivity the NRC is bringing to the community, and the impact it is having outside of Newburyport. She recounted that during the Holiday Spree a customer from Connecticut who would not be able to participate in the entire event still gave her $5 because he wanted to contribute to a wonderful effort and organization.