Entrepreneurs in the center of Turku have been penalized by both Korona and the protracted market renovation. There is already light at the end of the tunnel.
Turku stone dust flies in the market square. The city center has been in turmoil for more than three and a half years. The controversial market park was first built and a new market is now being prepared. Schedules have not always kept up. For example, the pavilions built into the restaurant’s market premises were supposed to open already last year – last year. Even now, truss fences guide walkers to wade through narrow corridors. Market traders have returned from the evacuation, but much of the space is still out of order.
The nerves of the townspeople have been strained by ever-changing traffic arrangements. Driving and walking routes have changed at worst on a daily basis. In Turku, there are fears that people have echoed the city center permanently.
The protracted renovation has been like a leaking wound on the face of the city. At least as bad has been a mental scar in a city whose brand is built on the downtown and riverside.
In the middle of the renovation chaos, Korona was still hit. Many entrepreneurs suspected that this would no longer rise. The opticians’ shop along Kauppiaskatu was also embarrassed Jarkko and Johanna Vilén.
Suddenly, in the spring and winter of 2020, the Vilénie family business was in a situation where street work was taking over parking lots and Korona customers.
“Yes, it was horrible, but then everyone else experienced the same monster,” Jarkko Vilén recalls.
The Vilén decided to keep their shops open despite everything.
“Service is what we have invested in. We have a lot of regular customers and long customer relationships. We are never asked not only what should be, but also what belongs. ”
“Every day someone came here. Sometimes someone even made a deal, ”Vilén laughs.
Over the course of the spring, Johanna Vilén had time to wade through Netflix for four episodes of the Galerias Velvet drama series. In the afternoons, the couple learned tourist Spanish on the radio Esko Eerikäinen under.
New phrases never got used to it, for after the worst restrictions on movement, life returned.
“In the middle of May, people started coming again,” Jarkko Vilén recalls.
In June 2020, the 50-year-old company was the best in its history in terms of sales. The Vilén noticed how the pent-up demand started to erupt.
“I told my wife then that now I don’t long for a holiday,” says Jarkko Vilén.
And the merchants have not had time to take a vacation since then.
In 2019, Optinäö’s net sales had reached a record level of almost EUR 650,000. With Korona, it fell by five percent, but returned to a rising trajectory again in 2021. Operating profit has continued to rise steadily throughout.
The renovation of the part of Kauppiaskatu in front of the store was completed in April this year. The route previously used by through traffic became a pedestrianized street.
At first glance, one would not immediately believe that the opening of the Turku Market Square will be celebrated in September.
Jarkko Vilén says that the promenades have clearly been in people’s minds.
“In our movement, it is no longer very visible, but as a general bustle. You can see how people pass by it in a completely different way now. ”
Vilén, who observes the life of the market square every day, believes that the same phenomenon is ahead throughout the city center.
“We are certainly expecting an increase in the attractiveness of the city center. That those people who have not been to the city center for a while will come to see what has been achieved here. ”
According to the current schedule, the Turku Market Square will open in its entirety in September. The pavilion restaurants will be completed during June.
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