Small Business Saturday and the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season brought out locally-minded shoppers this weekend.
PORTLAND, Ore. — There’s been a big push to shop local this year, more it seems than in years past. Small Business Saturday and the unofficial kickoff to holiday shopping happened over the weekend, bringing with it an uptick for some locally-owned small businesses.
Lluvia Merello and her business partner Chance Starr own Indigenous Come Up, a small business that specializes in arts, crafts and jewelry all designed and made by Indigenous people.
Merello said during the pandemic, it’s been tough to adjust from in-person, market booth sales, to having a good online presence. She said sales have been slow.
“One-hundred percent everything came to a screeching halt for several months,” said Merello.
But this past weekend, with Small Business Saturday and many people starting their holiday shopping, she saw an increase in sales. An event held by her nonprofit Portland Indigenous Marketplace on Black Friday also helped.
“This last weekend was phenomenal,” Merello said.
She said she started the nonprofit after wanting to give other Indigenous people an opportunity to sell their own products.
It wasn’t just Merello’s business that got a bump in sales. Anna Vasquez makes custom jewelry, wedding rings and engagement rings through her business Nested Yellow Jewelry Co.
For her, business has been steady throughout the pandemic, but the weekend brought happiness not only because of her birthday, but also because of the added customers.
“I saw an uptick with the sales…I did see a lot more inquiries, a lot more activity on the site,” said Vasquez.
Meantime, Charles Huynh, the owner of Pinky on Northwest 23rd Avenue in Portland, said his store saw steady support all weekend with people careful to stay socially distant in his store, while consciously spending more money at local shops.
“We had our highest sales weekend ever,” said Ash Cintas, the founder and CEO of City Shoppe. “We had our highest daily sales and we had our highest sales for the amount of vendors who received sales.”
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