Small Business Saturday is this weekend.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With Black Friday five days away, the official holiday shopping season is about to be underway. Playing the role of the grinch this year, global supply chain issues that may end up causing your gifts to be delayed.
For small businesses, impacted by COVID-19 restrictions last year, shop owners are hopeful for more foot traffic and people coming in to avoid shipping altogether.
“Unfortunately, because of COVID, because of the supply chain issues, some things that sell really well over the holiday season have been harder for us to get,” said Amy Phillips-Gary, the manager of Global Gifts in the Short North, a non-profit retail marketplace fair trade shop. “That just means we’ve had to be more flexible; we’ve had to be more innovative, we’ve gotten creative, too. So, there are some things that we may not have, but we brought other things on instead.”
Global Gifts sells items from artisan across 40 different countries. They still expect people to shop online and to pick up curbside, but they believe more people will be coming in, even on Small Business Saturday.
“It really does mean a lot. The pandemic has taken a hit and in a lot of ways on small businesses and so the more you can shop local, shops small, shop fair, the better, and we really appreciate that,” said Phillips-Gary.
