Small Business Saturday in Greenville

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - As the holiday shopping season continued on Saturday, the streets of Uptown Greenville were busy with those supporting local businesses.

“Whenever we can, that’s what we like to do,” Greenville residents Scott and Bree Wisseman said. “Since we live here in Greenville, we want to support Uptown and all the local shops here.”

The City of Greenville took an extra step to support small businesses by providing a free ride on the Emerald Express Trolley on the shopping route.

“The less time you have to spend in your car when you’re in Uptown, the better,” Scott said. “To just be able to park and end walk to hop on the trolley to go anywhere you want to go in town is awesome.”

Riders were given gift cards to shop at stores such as the Emerge Gallery, where it was busy.

“We’ve have had more folks in the first two hours that we’ve been open than we’ve had in quite a while,” exhibits coordinator Sarah Lazure said. “So, it’s been great!”

At the Votre Boutique, the store had a makeover at just the right time.

“We actually just moved everything around this morning,” Maggie Knuth said. “So we just want everyone to come in and get a fresh look at all of our new stuff. We get new arrivals every day, all week long. We try to keep everything on the mannequins current and in the windows to draw shoppers back in here.”

Business owners said how local support helps more than just their business.
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“Well, it means we can support our local artists,” Lazure said. “They’re also depending on this, and where the big box chains have backups and shortages, all of our artists are here. They can provide the artwork. It’s a direct result. They get that money back in their pocket and it helps them out with the holiday and the new year as well.”
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