People walk beside Main Street businesses in downtown Zelienople Wednesday. Borough council on Monday approved a request by the Zelienople Business Association to allow businesses to sell goods outside their shops or bring in vendors who may attract customers to the store.

It's certainly out of the box.

But that's nothing new for Zelienople.

At its Monday meeting, borough council approved a request by the Zelienople Business Association that would allow local businesses to sell goods outside their shops or bring in vendors who may attract customers to the store.

“The people here, they think out of the box a lot, which I commend,” said Don Pepe, borough manager.

The move comes after the borough approved another measure by the business association that brought three pop-up sites for Zelienople diners to eat outside of restaurants on street corners and in the community park.

While that move was limited to restaurants, this is for each business in the borough.

“They'd like to be able to have outside of their shops, from time to time, on Thursday nights, a way to sell not only their goods outside but ways to attract customers to them by way of having, maybe, artists out there, that augment what they do in their business,” Pepe said.

Pepe framed the move as another way the borough government seeks to help Main Street during the economic recovery following COVID-19-related business closures. “If it helps somebody, why not?” he asked.

Kelly Carney, who owns Eva Bryn Shoetique, said that as most businesses in the borough are small businesses, they were grateful for recent support from the borough and other local organizations.

She said her store plans on holding outdoor shoe sales and bringing in a vendor who may sell fresh vegetables or perhaps salsa. “Just anything fresh and nice that somebody wouldn't have to get too close to somebody else to purchase,” she said.

Carney added that this, combined with another quirk in Zelienople ordinances — a lack of an open-container law — might make for some interesting sales.

“We're hoping that ShuBrew will have some beer outside for sale,” Carney said.

While the move isn't usual — an organized structure of vendors outside shops isn't seen frequently in the southern tier of the county — local government was amenable to permit it due to the pressing circumstances of the current economic outlook.

“I think council's of the opinion, just as well as I am, you don't say no if you can find a way to say yes, if it helps someone and if it helps the intent of keeping the businesses clean and open,” Pepe said. “They've suffered enough. You might as well give them as much help as you can.”