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Communities prepare for Small Business Saturday

By Paul Paterra newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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Herald-Standard

In this file photo, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus arrive on a big red fire engine in a parade held to celebrate Small Business Saturday in Fayette County.

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Paul Paterra

A youngster decorates an ornament in the Main Street pavilion in downtown Washington during last year’s Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday is a day dedicated to “buying local,” and some area communities are promoting the day with special events intended to help boost sales.

Muriel Nuttall, executive director of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, said small businesses are a big part of an annual holiday program.

“It starts the day after Thanksgiving and runs through Christmas,” Nuttall said. “Our big push is keep the cheer here, shop local Fayette. We try to make it light and fun and keep the focus on shopping local, not just on Small Business Saturday, but all through the holiday season.”

This year, two Elves on the Shelf – Fay and Ette – make appearances at various business affiliated with the chamber of commerce.

“We move the elves around to different locations,” Nuttall explained. “Fayette County television works out of this office, so we’ll have commercials done for the businesses. We have a marketing blitz that goes with it on all types of social media. These two elves also get into some other craziness.”

When patrons shop at the stores where the elves are located, they can register for prizes.

“Each business is giving away a $50 basket,” Nuttall said. “At the end, we’ll collect all of those and we’ll give away another prize. The goal is go in and shop and when you shop, register for the prizes.”

In Greene County, the recognition of small businesses actually began in early November, as the chamber of commerce promotes the idea of “shop small, shop local.”

“We receive a package from American Express each year,” said Melody Longstreth, executive director. “It doesn’t give me enough for all of my retailers, but we try to send 10 different retailers in the area one of the packages.” The packages contain shopping bags, signage and posters to help promote the idea of shopping small.

“We promote all year long to try to encourage people to shop small,” Longstreth said.

One such promotion is the annual Christmas Gift Card and Cash Raffle for a raffle ticket for $3,550 of gift cards and gift certificates, as well as Christmas cash for local businesses.

“The idea is that this will hopefully drive the winner into these stores to use these gift certificates and hopefully spend more or give them as gifts so that it spreads them even further,” Longstreth said.

The city of Washington will kick off the day with a breakfast crawl starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Check-in will be at the Main Street Pavilion, and “passports” will be scattered throughout town. Patrons visit participating businesses to get their passport stamped. Once the passport is completed, it’s returned to the pavilion for an entry in a raffle to win a downtown gift basket.

“The breakfast crawl is over 10 locations, 10 stops around downtown,” said Shana Brown, Main Street Manager, adding that bonus stops are included this year.

As part of the festivities, a partnership has been formed with Toys for Tots.

“If you bring a toy and drop it off in the bin for Toys for Tots, you get a freebie space on the passport for the breakfast crawl,” Brown said.

Small Business Saturday was first observed in the United States in November 2010. Shoppers are encouraged to patronize businesses that are small and local.

The event returned to Washington in 2021 after a one-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of last year’s most popular attractions was the children’s area in the pavilion.

“The children’s area really caught us off guard last year; we didn’t expect it to be as big as it was,” Brown said. “We had a really good turnout for the puppet show and wanted to expand on that.”

Along with the puppet show, there will be appearances by the Rowdy Ladybug, a group that specializes in creative, interpretive play, and Mr. Conductor, who will read “The Polar Express.” There also will be stations for making reindeer food, decorating cookies and ornaments, as well as one for writing letters to Santa, who also will be available for pictures.

“The ornaments that the kids decorate are going to be put on the float (for the Christmas parade),” Brown said, which is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 2. A “naughty and nice list” will also be compiled for the float.

Vendors will be stationed at a number of locations, such as Ignite, the Table, the Washington County Historical Society and Venue 19 North, which will have its first-ever Winter Farmer’s Market featuring live music and a gift-wrapping station.

Vendors also will be at the Bradford House, where a docent will be cooking in the outside kitchen cabin.

“It really is, across the board, a community event,” Brown said.

Peters Township Chamber of Commerce also has an event scheduled and businesses that want to participate are asked to let the chamber know by today.

“We’ve asked them to include any promotions that they intend to run for Small Business Saturday,” said Kelly Caldwell, executive administrator. “We’ll post that on all of our social media platforms.”

Caldwell said the chamber has supplied a graphic to the businesses to hang in their window, and patrons should take a picture near the graphic or with a receipt of their purchase on Saturday, tag the business and post with #ptchambersbs to social media.

“Those that do that are entered for a mystery basket,” Caldwell said.

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