Amory Main Street kicks off season with annual Fall Open House

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – It was the first day of October and the town of Amory was ready to welcome the fall season. Amory Main Street hosted its annual Fall Open House.

It was a busy Sunday at Bill’s Hamburgers in Amory. Will Payte was happy to see so many faithful customers supporting his restaurant during the Fall Open House.

“It is important for a small town like ours. Every dollar spent on Main Street stays in Amory because Amory Main Street businesses are owned by people who live in Amory, work in Amory, and have family in Amory. When you spend your money at other businesses like large corporations, it goes to the headquarters, wherever that is. Our headquarters is here in downtown Amory, Mississippi. Those dollars are spent local, stay local, and redistribute locally,” said Payte.

Many other businesses opened their doors from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.Sunday afternoon to encourage their community to shop locally.

“This is what makes our town. If we didn’t have a lot of these small businesses, I don’t know what we would really have in this small town. I think we have a lot of great different variety of stores and restaurants. We are all different and come together and make it so different for our small town,” said Yazmin Johnson, the owner of Southern Mags.

The hometown support meant even more to some of these businesses that suffered damage during the March tornado.

Payte said business has been booming since he re-opened selling his famous burgers.

“Between cleanup efforts and now that everything is becoming more open and accessible, I think there’s been a lot more foot traffic in downtown especially through cleanup crews that are here, federal crews that have come in, and local churches and just people that have come down to help out,” said Payte.

Almost all of Amory’s main street businesses participated in the open house.

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