On Small Business Saturday owners rally “we’re all in this together”

FOX CITIES, Wis. (WFRV)– We’ve seen countless stores succumb to this pandemic and for some shops in the Fox Cities, Small Business Saturday is more important now more than ever before.

“We are all struggling so please, please get out and shop local. You really want to support that small business if you want to keep them in your community and have choices, says Chanda Anderson, a small business owner of Caramel Crisp in Oshkosh.

Small businesses are asking shoppers to support the little stores by keeping their dollars local.

Jonathan Roug, an Appleton small business owner of Float Light says, “Participating in a day that’s dedicated to small business, you’re really telling the businesses around your community like we’re here to support you.”

Anderson adds, “Small businesses are the heart of the community and you have to have small businesses to provide choices and things that are different than what the big boxes offer.”

Local stores not only bring character to a community, but they also give back.

Anderson says, “We pay our taxes local. We buy our groceries locally. So all that money goes right back into our economy.”

Roug adds, “The aspect of Small Business Saturday is really at its core what builds a community.”

The pandemic wiped out a number of small businesses, so this holiday season is make or break.

Anderson says, “They estimate that 25 percent of us are not going to make it and I know I personally am feeling the problems of COVID-19.”

Amy Albright, Executive Director for the Oshkosh Convention and Visitors Bureau says, “When you’re looking at limiting occupancies. It’s very different when you’re looking at a very large store if you have to limit occupancies, it doesn’t have as big of an impact as it does if you’re a small retail shop.”

Roug is optimistic about 2021 and says, “We are seeing decrease in the amount of sales that we’re producing from prior years, but we certainly aren’t losing hope.”

Small Business Saturday hopes to unify the retail community even if a business is in another city,

Albright says, “Whether you’re shopping up the road in Appleton, Green Bay, Neenah or you’re here in Oshkosh or you make a day and hit all of them. I think that we are all in this together.”

Anderson says, “Small businesses are no longer competitors. We are now working for the greater good of our community or Wisconsin.”