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Saturday's small business is a big problem for many Jefferson City retailers.
Owners and managers of the smaller retailers in the community said that it gives them a daylong boost each year while offering great deals to their customers.
The day allows clients to celebrate and support small businesses and everything they do, according to the US Small Business Administration. American Express helps support the push by providing items, such as buttons and shopping bags, that companies can give to customers.
"It's one of our biggest days of the year," said Linda Gardner-Goos, with The Art Bazaar, at 1502 E. High St.
The store offers hand-made items from a co-op of 30 local artists – stuffed toys, jewelery, glass and wood creations, and much more.
She said that normally the bazaar avoids doing too much marketing for its client list, but as the day approaches, it sends emails and reminders on Facebook.
The store was very busy Saturday morning, said Gardner-Goos.
Same as downtown stores.
C.C. McClure, director of Downtown Book & Toy, was busy pinning buttons on children's jackets and distributing free treats. The toy store tried to give memory nets or bookmarks to every child who entered the store.
"We looked at it very early, I think it's the seventh or eighth year," said McClure. "It's a very big day for us."
In addition to offering gifts for children, the bookstore offered a gift for adults: free cookbooks.
"We think gifts are important, and we are accumulating cookbooks throughout the year," she said.
The store buys books from publishers all year round. Some, unable to be returned, would gather differently on the shelves and take up space. Saturday's small business is an opportunity to turn these overloaded books into gifts for buyers.
Angie Even and her mother, Carol Even, spent the morning shopping with unique toys. They said that they had found objects that they could not find anywhere else. Angie said she received "Little Golden Books" for her young niece and "Word Slam" – a word-based guessing game – for an older child.
"We always like to come here and shop locally for Saturday," she said.
A 6 foot plastic keyboard laid on the floor near the door greeted people who entered Carrie's seal during the event. Like Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia in the movie "Big," people stopped him and admired him. Some folded on it; others have tried to play music.
Then they went ahead and found bargains.
Several generations of family members have shopped together at the annual event.
Sammie Kirchner, her daughter, Danelle Stockman, and her granddaughter, Taylor Stockman, made it a day.
"It's been a long time since we want to come here, we like to come here," said Kirchner. "We decided that today was the day."
Kirchner added that she was watching everything the Hallmark store had to offer – and there were plenty of them. She said that she would continue wandering and shopping until she found the right "material", even if it meant going around the store twice.
And what she did not find there, Kirchner could find it elsewhere.
"Jefferson City is unique," said McClure. "We have a huge local clientele, everyone wants to shop on the Internet, but they want to help local stores."
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