Get Ready, Antique Alley Is Coming by John Dersham

Get Ready, Antique Alley is coming! Beginning on Thursday and running through Sunday May 17-20 Antique Alley Yard Sale hosts its annual event in our area. The yard sale sometimes known as the Highway 11 Yard Sale runs 502 miles along H-11. The two yard sales that pass through our area each year are the two most popular events of which we get calls and emails at the DeKalb Tourism. Antique Alley and the World’s Longest Yard sale in August keep our phones ringing and email inquiries coming year around. H&G TV runs a special on the World’s Longest Yard sale each year. When the show runs we get inquires that are nonstop for a few weeks. These events bring thousands of people through our area each year. This is important to our communities since tourist dollars are spent on food, gas, shopping, attractions and overnight stays in Hotels, campgrounds, B&B’s and cabins. If weather is good we could see as many as 30,000 additional cars coming through our area during the upcoming four day event. Antique Alley runs on H-11 all the way from Meridian Mississippi to Bristol Virginia, it includes five states, 23 counties and 77 towns. In terms of consumer spending the business model works like this; For our traveler to be a tourist they cannot live in DeKalb County. Their travel means they are spending their money in an economy they do not live it, thus paying us taxes, earning us tax revenue we would not get if they were not here. When they are here many of them stay overnight spending $85-150 per night. They buy food $15-150 per day based on family size. They buy gas and retail items at our stores. They go to movies or other entertainment all of which we collect tax dollars adding to the revenue income it our cities, towns and county. For those of you whom have businesses on or near H-11 (Gault Ave) you may want to plan your advertising, promotions and specials to capitalize on the larger number of people available to you at this time. To obtain more information about Antique Alley Yard Sale visit our www.tourdekalb.com website and click on yard sales, or call us at DeKalb Tourism 256-845-3957