Downtown Erie businesses preparing for biggest Small Business Saturday yet

It’s the biggest Small Business Saturday yet. Local downtown brick and mortar stores, pop up shops and micro enterprises are preparing for one of their busiest days of the year.

68 cents of every dollar spent at a small business in the United States comes back to benefit local communities, which is a major reason why Mayor Joe Schember is emphasizing shopping local.

On Saturday, November, 25, the Erie Downtown Partnership will be holding their third Small Business Saturday.

This is an event to celebrate all things local with over 60 small and micro business vendors participating.

The events and marketing manager said that their goal with this event is to make downtown Erie a shopping destination.

“We’ve partnered with erie arts and culture to bring the western pa makers market to the boston store,” said Dave Tamulonis, events & marketing manager, Erie Downtown Partnership. “We’ve also partnered with the Erie Art Museum this year to not only put vendors in the art museum and have entertainment there throughout the day and we’re sponsoring a free admission day at the art museum.”

Tamulonis said you can find a lot of unique holiday gifts from small businesses like Glass Growers Gallery.

“Being a small business is really something that adds an unique element to the community,” said Emily Ernes, owner of Glass Growers Gallery. “We also have over 90 artists that were also supporting through these efforts.”

The 50-year-old gallery is highlighting their holiday show that is comprised of a variety of small, one of a kind giftable items.

“We’re really excited we’ve been doing a lot of preparation and we have a lot of great things to showcase this year so, we’re just excited to see everyone,” Ernes said.

While some businesses are preparing special deals, others are debuting new products.

“We’re always thinking of new ideas to kind of implement to make the small business saturday different than what we did the previous year,” said Daisy Clark, manager of The Dollhouse.

An original perfume produced by the vintage boutique will be launching and hitting the shelves just in time for the holiday season

“We always say Small Business Saturday is our favorite holiday. It just highlights the local community and all the small businesses and the owners that put a lot of hard work into capturing their passion,” Clark said. “It’s just a special day to really shop for your holiday things.”