Black Friday is considered a holiday to many Americans in the United States. People wake up at the crack of dawn to try and score a brand-new TV or kitchen aid. Many people focus on the shiny deals from the big box corporations.
However, that isn’t the focus of all shoppers. In rural Wyoming, Laramie is having a small shop weekend, Nov. 24-25. Laramie is known for their small businesses and having the best small business Saturday.
Small business Saturday began back in 2010 by American Express credit card. It was a way to promote shopping for small businesses. Owner of NU2U Robert Harder comments on the history of small business.
“The history was started with this American Express kind of corporate thing that was trying to drum up business through small merchants when they created it. I think it is a way to get to the small merchants that were not accepting American Express. And somehow managed to kind of turn into this thing and now everybody can count on it. It’s pretty darn cool,” Harder said.
This year, Downtown Laramie will be having Plaid Friday, small business Saturday, and artists Sunday. Local businesses downtown will be having sales and special promotions for the shop small weekend. Cowgirl Yarn will be having grab bags on Friday and Saturday as well as a spin the wheel for a discount. Lori Kirk, owner of Cowgirl Yarn, expresses how much it means to her when people shop small.
“Shopping small for me is for the customers coming in to support me as an individual. They are supporting my dream of having a small business so that I can also give back to the community. This is my livelihood. I appreciate people shopping and not going to the big box store and easily “click” but also to come in and say hello and show off their projects. Shopping small is just a way of giving back. But also taking the beginning and saying thank you for shopping small locally,” Kirk said.
While all the stores are doing deals and special promotions Poppy’s Flower shop and Boutique is doing a special promotion with the theme of Taylor Swift, with their whole store decorated to look like a Taylor Swift concert. They are expecting to see around 1,000 people that day. Maya Peterson, a sales associate at Poppy’s finds small businesses a good way to bond with the community.
“I think it’s just a really good way for our community to rally around our businesses. A lot of them are owned by alumni of the university. It’s a good way for us to reach out to the community and come and see what we have and build a good bond,” Peterson said.
One unique part of small business Saturday is that this year Downtown Laramie is having a dine it forward for certain restaurants that chose to participate. To encourage people to dine locally some restaurants are doing a promotion where if one brings in a receipt from a local store downtown one will get 10% off their order.
One can find the businesses participating on the Downtown Laramie website.
