Saturday's message: Shop local, keep shopping local

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By Cynthia Price

Every year the crowds taking advantage of Shop Small Saturday increase, and this year’s warm (though rainy) weather meant a good turnout.

One of the advantages of the Muskegon area is that there are locally-owned stores scattered all over, so there was no need to drive too far, and shoppers can take advantage of interesting and unique shopping until Christmas.

Shop Small is a project of American Express, the credit card company, that started as Small Business Saturday in 2010 as many businesses were still coming out of the recession. By 2011, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution in support of the day, which takes place two days after Thanksgiving, and the Shop Small logo was born. (It has since been modified slightly several times, but anyone who has a Shop Small cloth tote can attest that it has always been fairly similar.)

Shop Small Saturday’s intent is to draw attention to the wonderful small businesses in local communities, and to expand the contribution of those small shops to establishing the local economy on firm footing.
Muskegon has embraced the idea for years, and even some places that might be counterintuitive hold sales and events.

For example, My Space Storage on Getty St., which has occasional sales featuring occupants (as previously reported in the Examiner), was open to the public that day.

The many shops shown in these photos seemed to be doing a brisk business, and there was that old-fashioned holiday spirit of happiness in the air.

The great thing is, most of the venues were just getting started for the holidays.

The Front Porch, a vintage shop on Pine St., downtown Muskegon, will again host a Lakeshore Antique Trail event on New Year’s Day. Last yea there were over 25 shops between Montague and South Haven included.

The Muskegon Farmers’ Market is open Saturdays in December (except. the 29th) from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., and Sweetwater Local Foods Market on Harvey St., which offers handmade crafts in addition to food, is every Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon.

Lakeside Shopping District, not included in this article even though it did participate, is hosting Holidays in Lakeside on Dec. 1 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be the traditional horse drawn carriage rides; the Pocket Park tree will be lit the night before; and the Harbor Cinema is featuring both Santa Claus and the film The Santa Clause.
 

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