The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is a critical time for big-name retailers. It’s even more vital for small, independent business owners like Alison Murphy, owner of the temporary pop-up Christmas store Concord Handmade, which opened last week and will close just before Christmas.
For Murphy, the weekend is a chance to generate interest in her wares and to let customers know where she is, since her store has moved around the downtown area for six years. She’s relying on her following, as well as being located in the same space on Pleasant Street for the second year in a row, to bring her customers back. And like many independent retailers in the downtown, she’s anticipating the recent completion of the revitalization project, which ended in early November, will bring even more shoppers to the area this weekend.
“I think people are just looking for an excuse to check it out, and see how beautiful it is,” Murphy said. “Even for me, who lives near the downtown, it’s exciting. I find myself driving up and down Main Street a lot more often.”
Murphy has sold her own wares at her store along with consignments from other vendors for the past six years. She said Plaid Friday and Super Saturday, the small and local businesses’ answer to Black Friday, are more like previews for her store.
“I’ve found that people tend to browse around on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and maybe start to buy things on Super Saturday,” she said. “And then they come back the weekend after for ‘Midnight Merriment.’ ”
Many independent businesses, including Concord Handmade, will not be open today, a trend that has becoming increasingly popular since 2011 with big retailers. Gibson’s Bookstore owner Michael Herrmann described the enroachment upon the holiday as a “bad trend.”
“It just seems like the wrong note to strike; people should be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families,” he said.
Herrmann did say Gibson’s would be extending its hours in mid-December, but for the time being will keep regular hours this weekend. He felt the trend of opening earlier and earlier is in response to demands from investors, not from customers.
“We want people to use holiday shopping as a way to support and connect with their communities. This is our message all year long, and Plaid Friday – along with Small Business Saturday, with the message of “shift your shopping” –is a key opportunity to deliver that message,” he said. “The weekend after Thanksgiving used to be a time we would watch people head to the malls. Now, more and more, people are consciously deciding to shop with local retailers, and we think that’s great.”
When he heard some stores will be opening at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Herrmann laughed. “We’ll all be taking a nap by then,” he said.
Amanda Perkins, owner of Gondwana and Divine Women’s Clothing, said the upcoming weekend is typically busy for her store, and she anticipates it will be busier this year due to downtown’s renovation.
“We’ve seen a lot more people than we’ve seen in a while, who were deterred from coming downtown during construction,” she said. “All we hear about is how great it looks.”
Perkins said the most complaints around the renovation project was the lack of parking.
“I don’t think a lot of people felt it wasn’t worth the hassle,” she said.
There is one aspect of Black Friday independents will be adhering to: deals. Perkins said there will be a store-wide discount of 15 percent off for both Friday and Saturday, and Herrmann said anyone wearing plaid on Friday will get 10 percent off their order, a tradition they started last year. You can also get in on the discount by saying the secret word. Here’s a hint: it’s “plaid.”