Main Street Gets Apple-Expertise Computer Shop

By Sherry Youngquist, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Jun. 16–MOUNT AIRY — Making money on the sleek iPods and MacBooks would be nice, but the two men behind a new computer store on North Main Street said they mostly want to get people in the door.

Jacob Butner and Mark Spencer, the owners of CyberGear, said they would really like to start servicing Macintosh computers in the area.

They also see the store and the 400 block of North Main as one more piece in the region’s economic-development puzzle. CyberGear and other new businesses along this stretch are building a specialty-shopping district that business owners hope will add another dimension to the allure of this small downtown.

“If we sell computers, great. If not, we’ll get their service,” Butner said.

Butner, 24, and Spencer, 39, opened their store April 1 after combining their computer-service companies. They immediately attracted some Apple users who were used to driving to stores in Winston-Salem, Charlotte or Durham, and they have begun to loan out some Apple computers to businesspeople in the area to get them to switch over from PCs.

Word is getting out, and a lot of credit has to be given to CyberGear’s approach in making itself visible, said Betty Ann Collins, the president of the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce.

This month, CyberGear got together with 14 other businesses on their block — ranging from a bakery to a furniture store — to create a tagline for themselves- North 400.

Mount Airy has been the focus of at least three economic-development studies in the past five years, and a recommendation that has been repeated is to create a specialty-shopping district, said Amy Slate, the owner of Scarlet Begonias, which sells gifts, art and clothing.

“It is a specialty-shopping district other than Mayberry,” she said.

Mayberry attracts a tourist economy that accounts for millions of dollars. In 2004, tourism in Mount Airy and Surry County generated $66.65 million, and there are more than 670 jobs in the travel and tourism industries with a payroll of $11.5 million.

Business leaders said they do not want to take away from that, but they hope that there is also room for another layer to the city, Collins said.

“Years ago, I heard a local business person say they hope we did not become the Mayberry theme park. I’ll be honest, of course, the whole Mayberry thing is the thing that draws them in, but once they get here the city is real,” Collins said.

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