It’s all about local

Holiday shopping across America officially kicked off this past weekend with Black Friday followed by Small Business Saturday. The emphasis for both days — Shop Local!’

With all the signs for mega deals, special sales, and similar advertising posted everywhere, people were out in abundance looking and, in many cases, making holiday purchases. This rang true for local businesses in downtown Clinton, as shop owners touted the event as a huge success that brought in plenty of foot traffic.

“We are hopeful that the citizens of Clinton and Sampson County continue to shop and support local on future Black Fridays and Small Business Saturdays,” noted Mary Rose, Main Street director, noting the success of both this year. “Usually, this week, I’ll pop in and out, to kind of ask how things went, but I haven’t a chance to do that yet, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. That’s important to highlight as it means so much to our local businesses because it helps keep them going year-round.”

A handful of small businesses shared how successful the two shopping days went for them, along with their thanks to customers for their continued support.

“It was pretty good, and I’d say Black Friday was definitely stronger for us,” said Krissy Smith, of Clinton Appliance. “We tried something new for Small Business Saturday this year, and had a little event. It was an open house, like a Christmas open house.”

Smith said her daughter hosted a charity hot cocoa and apple cider stand for victims of Hurricane Helene where she raised about $350.

“That was nice. My daughter is actually sending what she raised to the people in the mountains,” Smith explained. “That was something new that we tried this year. We had a good turnout for that, along with Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.”

For the ladies over at James Trading Company downtown in Roseboro, it was days of fun all about celebrating their new and returning customers, and helping them with Christmas shopping.

“To me, it was a day of just celebrating the holiday season and celebrating our customers,” owner Randi Kelly said. “We tried to offer a little fun, so we had some goodies and really some store-wide specials that, hopefully, helped get some holiday shopping off the ground. We saw a lot of familiar faces and a few new faces; they were just out enjoying and shopping locally. So I would say, overall for us, it was a great day.”

Kelly said they also gave out hot cider and cookies for the very frigid day as a thank you to those who came out to show support.

“For us, it’s as much about the interactions and the relationships that we can continue to build with our customers,” Kelly stressed. “We were most appreciative of everybody that came out to shop with us. Clearly some of them made the effort to come those day just because they want to shop small. In our case, like on Small Business Saturday, we know several people were out just to support shopping locally, and that means so much.”

Sue Smith, of Tickled Pink, wasn’t open for Black Friday but did participate in Small Business Saturday. That was more than enough, she explained, “We were not there on Friday; we closed for Thanksgiving, but I was there for Saturday, which was Small Business Saturday, and we were busy as bees,” Smith said laughing. “We weren’t there for Friday, because most people go out of town, but they all came to see us on Saturday, so we had a very, very successful time.”

Smith and Kelly agreed community support was in abundance for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

“Black Friday was definitely a big sales day for us; there was a good amount of traffic, I would say, twice what we’d see on a normal day,” Khrissy Smith said. “Small Business Saturday, not quite as much. I don’t know if there were more people going out of town to shop and things like that, but there was not quite as much as Black Friday.”

That was a bit of a surprise for Smith because she had expected most shoppers to be out of town for Black Friday.

“Black Friday had a little bit more of a turnout, which was good, because you really expect people to go out of town then,” she said. “It was good that some people chose to just stay local and shop. I don’t know that here in Clinton, that Small Business Saturday is really taken off yet. I don’t think it’s something that a lot of people are aware of yet, except for small business owners. I don’t know if Small Business Saturday is something that’s taken off with the public yet, but hopefully it will.”

Kelly had a similar result and said the number of shoppers who paid them a visit was vastly increased.

“The foot traffic was significantly more for us,” she said. “I don’t know why, I can’t really say the cause. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because we all promote and spread the word on shopping locally. Black Friday, it was interesting because we had several more customers. Small Business Saturday was great but Black Friday was probably a little bit better for us than normal as far as number of people that came in.”

At Tickled Pink, Smith explained, “Well, I’m off from downtown a little bit but I’ve built a pretty good reputation, and because of that, people came to see me on Small Business Saturday so I think that traffic was wonderful. I’m truly appreciate of everything everybody does.”

While none of them divulged their financial earnings, a statement from Kelly was reminiscent of their shared viewpoint.

““It’s fair to say, though, we had increased sales due to the impact of our Shop Small campaign and our local and loyal customer base.”

Whether it was Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or both, these events were important to the livelihood, growth and success of all local business in Sampson County. Just how critical it was is something these three had to express.

“This time of year, it’s really important that people aren’t just shopping on Amazon and online and things like that,” Khrissy Smith said. “This is the time when we’re trying to make up for other times of the year that didn’t pan out great. Especially with this being election year, I think that’s affected a lot of businesses, so these event are really important.”

“We’re hoping for the next few weeks that people are going to continue coming out and shopping with us, because we do a lot and we care about the community,” she added. “We care about the people here, and we try to do all we can to support our community. Whereas, you know, Amazon and big box stores are not going to do that.”

For Kelly, reminding people about the importance of community and shopping around locally before visiting chain is what it’s all about.

“Part of what we were always promoting and saying is supporting local because it means so much to us,” she said. “Oftentimes, people can find what they need right here at their back door, whether it’s here or at another shop down the street. I think we’re all good in our community, as far as referring to other locations to shop. Hopefully, the community continues to embrace that sense of shopping locally, and remember you don’t need to drive 40 miles away to shop. We try to share that with not just Roseboro’s market, but really all the Samson County small businesses as well.”

Sharing support throughout the community was at the center of what Sue Smith noted as the most important part of this past weekend to her.

“I think it’s very important that people are very supportive,” she said. “I do a lot of sharing on social media and with the newspaper, too, that’s what it’s all about for us, sharing. All this that happened this weekend was a good example of that, and we’re keeping it going. I think this Thursday night we have something going on with Christmas in the City, and this Saturday, we’re apart of the Christmas Stroll.

“I love to participate for our community and I think it’s good for the city of Clinton,”Sue Smith added. “I think all of Clinton kind of helps each other out, we share information and always support each other and this weekend showed that.”