Thursday is Girls Night Out in the Village

Thursday’s night is ladies night in Maplewood Village. Shops, restaurants and spas in the downtown shopping district are offering special offers and deep discounts for female customers. The promotional shopping event, called Girls Night Out, is the first of its kind for Maplewood, and one of the organizers says it’s a perfect fit for her store's customer base, at least.

“Most of our shoppers are women,” Michele Bessey, owner of Perch Home and a co-organizer of Girl’s Night Out said. “There are a lot of guys who shop in our town, too, but the bulk of our shoppers are women.”

The 30-plus businesses participating are offering a variety of events and promotions to entice women (and interested men; there’re no plans on turning people of any gender away). Perch is holding a jewelry trunk show, Village Trattoria is offering half-price dinner specials, and Lorena’s will offer food at Mona Lisa Gallery. Elsewhere, businesses will offer drink specials, spa services, painting parties and more.

Businesses taking part in the promotion will be easy to spot; organizers have arranged for a trail of balloons to guide shoppers.

Bessey said the event was part of an ongoing effort to promote village shops through special events.

“At the beginning of the year, we decided we wanted to get events on the calendar with regularity,” Bessey said.

The event follows April’s Spring open market and the recent restaurant week event. Girls Night Out, which like the earlier events was organized through the Maplewood Village Alliance, is a nighttime event (the event goes until 9:30) and was designed to include all types of downtown businesses.

Most importantly, it promises to be a fun reminder of what the village offers. And, who knows, maybe it will lead to a standing weekly shopping date.

“Girlfriends go out a lot on Thursdays," Bessey said.

Editor's notes: the original version of this story applied Bessey's statement about women shoppers to the district; we later found out she was only referring to her store. Also, we identified her as the organizer; she was a co-organizer along with other store owners.