CONWAY, Ark. — We've shown you how some businesses didn't see the crowds they expected to see during the total solar eclipse.
Now, one Conway shopping center is doing something about it to help those who were negatively impacted.
"Everybody is sitting on a lot of inventory and really great inventory," said Kathy Brown, owner of Doc's Coffee and Creamery and The Village at Pickle Gap.
Business owners like Brown expected to sell most of their inventory over the weekend and on the solar eclipse day.
"What we experienced was, I guess, a slight trickle of people compared to what we anticipated," Brown said. "We were happy to have our customers, but we did not have the magnitude or the multitude that we anticipated."
Brown said she created a backup plan if her business didn't reach its expected sales.
"We do deal in food service and have a lot of perishables on backstock," Brown said. "We did plan a redundancy, which is our huge launch of our 'Friends' menu that starts [Friday]. We're hoping we'll be able to use all of our supplies on hand."
Other business owners in The Village at Pickles Gap thought they'd see more foot traffic, too.
"We were really prepared for crowds," The Ranch House Antiques Owner Amy Cullers said. "Everybody talked about crowds, but it was still fun."
The Rustic Jewel owner, Teresa Scherer, said she enjoyed talking to all the out-of-state visitors.
"With our turnout, we enjoyed talking to those not from around here," Scherer said.
They made several handmade bath bombs for the eclipse, and Scherer said they're experiencing some financial impact from not selling all of it.
"But we always make sure we leave a little cushion for things like this just in case something does happen," Scherer said.
On Friday night, all these businesses have a second chance to bring in more customers and sell their leftover inventory from the solar eclipse.
"We're going to have a multitude of vendors selling all different types of local products," Brown said. "Local things that they've made, and we're going to have food trucks."
All this in hopes of supporting one another and shopping locally.
"It's going to be something for everybody," Brown said.
Friday's event starts at 6 p.m. and is free to the public. Additionally, people can expect live music.
Click here for more information.