Downtown Eclectic is no longer the same Eclectic Abby Traylor, owner of The Leopard Fox boutique, was dying to leave in high school.
"I did not want to live in Eclectic," Traylor said. "I wanted to live in New York or somewhere where fashion was a big deal because going to school here, I would dress up every day, I looked at Teen Vogue, and I would of course get made fun of sometimes because nobody else really got it."
At the time, downtown Eclectic was largely empty, save for one cafe Traylor would eat breakfast at. Since then, however, Traylor has seen a slow reversal with new shops, cafes and restaurants starting to populate the empty storefronts, including The Leopard Fox which moved into its own storefront last month after being a vendor at Simply Sassy across the street.
Traylor is also on the zoning and planning committee and is aware of another restaurant and a bar that have secured spaces.
"I think people really like to see it liven back up because it's been dead for so long that they really come to support — and they want to support — the local businesses," she said.
And despite its initial halting of non-essential retail, the pandemic has been a boon for local business, Traylor said.
"People have been shopping local even more with the pandemic since they don't want to drive to Montgomery or Prattville and be in a big group," she said. "So, I think it's actually helped."
The Leopard Fox, which sells women's clothing and gifts, is also helped by the fact that locals cannot simply "pop into Walmart." They'd have to go to Tallassee, Alexander City or Wetumpka for the nearest big-box retailer — the only chain stores in Eclectic are a Piggly Wiggly and a Dollar General.
With everyone cooped up all of last year, Traylor said she can see people are dying to get dressed up again, even if only to go out for a meal.
"I think it's great if you need something, an outfit or a gift or something, it's so nice to leave school or get off work and get that (right here)," Traylor said. "It takes us an hour to get somewhere to really shop like Montgomery or Prattville. It's just nice to be right here."
While Traylor isn't letting go of her day job at the bank, thanks to the help of a few employees, she's able to do both.
"They make it easy," she said.
Traylor said she picks out clothing from wholesalers with a variety of customers in mind, from Elmore County High School girls to her mom, but her target demographic is young mothers. Luckily, she believes the town demographics are moving in her favor.
"We have a lot of people moving here for the school system and they're building a new development over there by Madix (plant) with 140 homes," Traylor said. "I feel like that's probably going to be young families moving into those homes."
