SHAWANO, Wis. — When Old Glory Candy opened eight years ago in downtown Shawano, co-owner Curt Preston and his business partners wanted to offer something different. 

The stock includes vintage candies and homemade fudge in a store that recalls the early part of the 20th Century.

“Our goal was to have a destination where people could come in and make memories and be happy and reminisce and talk about this kind of candy and what they did as a kid,” Preston said.

It’s an idea that’s gained traction and seen sales hit their high in the last few years.

That’s something Preston attributes in part to a push to make the downtown a destination for both visitors and businesses.

“Memorial Day on, it’s been non-stop with both local customers as well as tourists and visitors,” he said.

Lindsay Johnson is the coordinator of the city’s Business Improvement District.

She said the area is seeing interest from not only consumers but also businesses looking to relocate to the city.

“We’ve really seen a resurgence of downtown. There are lots of people coming to visit us, people finding us as a destination,” she said. “From the business side of things we’ve had a lot of businesses open up down here in the last six months to a year and the interest level has been extremely high of business moving in here.”

Regular events, like weeknight concerts, are helping bring people downtown. The city is also building a new downtown plaza expected to be finished later this summer.

“The ultimate goal is to build on and capitalize on the momentum that we’ve been building downtown,” said City Administrator Eddie Sheppard. “And to create Shawano as a destination space where people know if they come down to Shawano in the summertime — or any season of the year — that there’s going to be something going on.”

Preston is optimistic about the future of downtown and the business, even as there are some concerns inflation and higher costs for some necessities may cut into consumer spending at some point.

“With the increase in food prices and fuel prices and inflation in general, when is the discretionary money going to dry up? We don’t know,” he said. “We’ll just control the things we can and continue to offer a great product and good service and hopefully people will come in as they can and we can ride it out.”