Champagne was flowing Saturday night after several local businesses reported a successful holiday weekend.
“We had the two best days we’ve ever had. We’re so excited,” said Rebecca Clark, co-owner of Little Shoppes of Washington.
The business consists of a number of independent vendors under one roof. Clark said the best part was that every vendor did well.
By Saturday evening, her business partner, Jayne Meisell, was reporting she needed more cash register tape.
“We keep pushing the button to see how much people have made,” she said.
Brittany Clark, a sales associate at Washington Jewelers, said the downtown store had a successful Black Friday. Small Business Saturday saw even bigger sales.
Small Business Saturday, which falls between Black Friday and tomorrow’s Cyber Monday, was started by American Express about four years ago to remind holiday shoppers to support small business owners.
“We’ve done better than last year,” Brittany Clark added. “They just saw us in the newspaper. That was the biggest part of it.”
Washington Jewelers circulated a flyer of weekend specials and plans to have a new flyer full of deals for December.
Karen Krupa at the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center said business was booming. They too did better than last year.
“A lot of people said they spent yesterday in New Bern and today here,” Krupa said. “They wanted to shop local stores instead of the big ones, which is nice.”
A family birthday may have drawn Ollie Cherry, Anne Ambrose, Karen Houston, Karol Cherry and Shirley Hatten to Washington, but it was the “uniqueness” of local stores that drew them downtown, said Ambrose.
“We’re having a ball spending time with family and shopping down here,” said Houston. “I love the independent and individually-owned shops. That’s my preference.”