Triangle small businesses hope for consumers support on Small Business Saturday: 'Not exaggerating'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The biggest shopping weekend of the holiday season continues with Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday is right in the middle of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the goal is to try to get shoppers to support local.

Shawn Smith with the Black Friday Market in downtown Raleigh says, "It's a way for us to interact with the local community in a way for them to interact with us. So it's a great opportunity for that."

Smith says while it's tough to compete with the big retailers, their small business can still offer the discounts.

We are offering up to 70% off, but we're really excited about our 40% off on our flannels, and then we have 20-25% off our designer bags."

Shoppers like Lily Kern and Nick Lucas say it's the unique items in the stores that help them shop local. Kern said, "We have absolutely no idea that it was Small Business Saturday and so we parked our car right there, and then we had a little couple of minutes to kill before brunch and so we saw all the nice displays in the window, so we came in."

Small businesses hope shoppers realize how much their support makes a difference in the community. Deco in downtown Raleigh carries over one hundred independent and small business brands.

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Abby Zeugner the assistant manager at Deco says, "Sixty to seventy of them are going to be local Raleigh, North Carolina brands and so it is huge, not just for us, not just for the businesses around us, but for our employees that are all local, for the businesses that we carry. And you know, we're all about trying to stay in our town, in our state that we love so much."

While businesses say sales have been strong so far this year, small businesses are hoping the support continues through the end of the year.

"It's not an exaggeration to say that we do 20% of our year's business between now and Christmas. So this is a huge day for us. We're expecting lots of visitors and we're hoping that people just keep coming through the holiday season," Zeugner adds.

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