Small Business Saturday should help Albany businesses - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Small Business Saturday should help Albany businesses

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ALBANY, GA (WALB) -

One of the biggest shopping days of the year is approaching Black Friday.

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the day retailers slash prices and shopper gobble up the bargains.

It's coming, the holidays, it's time to fill out that shopping list. For most people that means a trip to a major retailer.  But if that's the only place that you go for your clothes, you're missing the whole picture.  And you're not alone.

"Sometimes the small mom and pops businesses are overlooked," said Jessica Blair, Verge.

To prevent that oversight, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is being promoted as Small Business Saturday.  Businesses in Downtown Albany are among those anticipating flocks of shoppers.  Part of their appeal lies in unique items that are hard for a larger store to offer.  Things like vegan meals available at Our Daily Bread.

"We're the only ones. There's not a number one or a number two yet," said Maribel Martin, Our Daily Bread.

But that isn't the only thing that these smaller shops have to offer.

We talked about how the clothes and knick knacks found here are often one-of-a-kind, but local restaurants can offer food not found at most places as well.

"We treat every customer with the respect that we want to be treated with," said Martin.

Stores like these may not have the sheer amount of stuff that you see in other places, but they do have one advantage.

"We have different name brands that can't be found in the mall," said MaeMae Fowler, My Sister's Place.

Stores like this one have another neat feature about them.

"It's got a lot of character. You lose a lot of character when you get out in mass produced malls," said Missy Whitney, My Sister's Place.

Their best feature, however, is that they can do a lot to keep a city vibrant.

"We recycle everything that we can possibly. To keep those dollars filtering back into the economy," said Blair.

And that means that everyone, large and small, can thrive. 

All the merchants we talked to Thursday said they see good crowds at lunchtime and many of their customers come from outside of Albany. 

You can get a complete list of businesses in downtown Albany by clicking here.

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