Second After Hours event to showcase two businesses

The second installment of the Malta Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours will be held this week with two local merchants participating, one with a new line of goods that they are extremely happy to have on their shelves.

"We've been having tons of requests for Under Armour in our store and have been trying to get it here for over a year and a half," said Avery Sorensen, manager at Family Matters in Malta.

On Thursday, July 16 in Malta, both Family Matters and RadioShack (Todd's Technology Store) will be the second and third stores in town to participate in the Business After Hours event and each local merchant will be offering sales and discounts. RadioShack will be offering 15-to-25 percent off of a slew of inventory and Family Matters will be giving a 25-percent, storewide discount during the night's event.

Sorensen and the rest of the staff at Family Matters were busily building the store's new Under Armour display on Thursday morning in Malta in preparation for the 16th's event. After months of trying, she said she finally got a Under Armour representative to make his way to Malta to see the store for himself.

"He came in the store and was blown away," Sorenson said. "We made a good first impression on him. He saw the store and became as confident in us selling Under Armour as we were. I think it is going to blow out of the water."

Sorenson added that the store will continue to get new Under Armour apparel but won't be able to put in a full-booking of products until the Fall of 2016.

"But I will do my best to keep it in stock," she said. "But right now we have compression gear for football and compression shirts for volleyball."

Sugar cookies and lemonade will be served at Family Matters during the After Hours event and RadioShack will be serving treats and beverages as well. RadioShack owner Eric Wilke said he is looking forward to Thursday night's event and that he is more than happy that his business will be featured along with Family Matters on the night.

"We get a lot of foot traffic from them and vice versa," he said. "The kids or the husbands get shopped-out over there and then come over here so we thought it was a good match to go on the same night because we get a lot of families splitting up to shop between the two stores."

Sorensen said that the After Hours event is nice way to showcase Family Matters and also thank the people who allow the store to keep its doors open.

"We want do something extra and special for people after hours," Sorenson said. "Sometimes it is hard for people to get downtown. We have a lot of loyal customers and they are who keeps us in business. If it wasn't for our loyal customers, we wouldn't have this little diamond in the rough."

The After Hour events start at 5 p.m. and run until 8 p.m. on Thursday.