Small Business Saturday event features downtown businesses

The Carson City Downtown Business Association is hosting a Small Business Saturday event with several local businesses in the downtown corridor. Free coffee and cookies will be offered in Laxalt Plaza just south of the Carson Nugget at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“The first 100 people to stop by our table will also receive $10 in Downtown Dollars to spend at any of the participating businesses, including shops, restaurants, entertainment and more (one per family),” according to the Facebook event page. “Spend the day downtown enjoying food, fun and holiday shopping while you support your local businesses.”

Participating businesses include Agency 36, Brewery Art Center, Carson City Bike Shop, Carson Jewelry & Loan, CRME Exploring Watercolor, Feisty Goat, Great Basin Brewing Co., High Desert Pine, Jimmy G's, Kaleidoscope, Mayer Family Wines, MidTown Marketplace, Nevada Artists Association, Nevada Gift Shop, So Juicy, Sumi Sushi, the Purple Avocado, the Tap Shack and Westside Pour House.

“It just keeps the downtown vibrant. It also creates a great sense of community,” Sue Jones, sergeant-at-arms for the Downtown Business Association, told the Appeal. “When you get to know the small business owners, you’re more likely to establish friendships.”

Jones has run the Purple Avocado gift shop with husband Stan since 2001.

“It definitely helps keep us all in business,” she said of Small Business Saturday.

Plus, with small shops, customers discover different gift ideas, she said. “Whimsical” and “eclectic” were some of the words she used to describe downtown offerings.

“We have different types of gifts you won’t see in the big stores,” she said. “We’ll take customers any day of the week, not just Small Business Saturday, but a lot of people come to our store on that day to show us that small business support, which is really great.”

For information about the event, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/202908726184102?ref=newsfeed.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, extra sales on Small Business Saturday can give downtown businesses “some badly needed support,” according to a press release.

“Small Business Saturday is upon us and by the end of the day, Nov. 25, Nevada’s Main Street entrepreneurs will either be exhaling a brief sigh of relief that their operations can continue at least through another holiday season, or that they will be making calculations for reducing hours, scaling back hiring and overtime, or — worst of all — throwing in the towel and closing up shop,” reads the release.

Tray Abney, Nevada state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), said small business job-creators “are the backbone of our state and will be responsible for putting holiday feasts on the tables of tens of thousands of Nevada families this year.”

“While large, Wall Street-traded retailers receive most of the attention this time of year, we want to urge every Nevadan to visit the shops owned by your friends and neighbors on Small Business Saturday,” Abney said.

The typical NFIB member employs five to nine people and reports gross sales of about $500,000 a year, according to the release.

“Although spending on Small Business Saturday came in at just under $18 billion last year, that amount was lower than the two previous years,” says the release.

For information, visit www.nfib.com/nevada.

For information about Carson City Downtown Business Association, visit https://www.downtowncarson.org.