Elsie Lampl wants to see crowded sidewalks in downtown Greensburg on Saturday, filled with residents ready to support small businesses.
Created 15 years ago by American Express, Small Business Saturday is held the Saturday after Thanksgiving to generate support for locally owned stores. Downtown Greensburg shoppers will receive parking discounts and a chance to win gift cards for supporting local businesses on Small Business Saturday.
“I just like to see people walking around,” said Lampl, president of the Greensburg Community Development Corp. “Anytime we have an event downtown, the best thing is to see people walking around downtown, making an event out of it.”
More than 20 businesses will give out envelopes to shoppers Saturday, each containing two quarters to be used toward parking in the city.
The initiative is meant to incentivize residents to shop local and combat the stigma of parking in downtown Greensburg, said Amy Beeghly — president of the Greensburg Business and Professional Association.
“If you ask people, the perceived biggest issue facing people shopping downtown is parking,” she said.
The city has 950 parking spaces available to the public, including street parking, parking garages and slots in 15 city parking lots, Beeghly said.
“It’s just a mindset of the people that they’re not going to find a parking spot, or they may not find a parking spot directly in front of the business they want to go to,” she said. “But you have to consider, when you go to the mall or to Walmart, you have to walk a little.”
Nearly 25 businesses also will participate in a bingo event on Small Business Saturday, Lampl said.
Shoppers can pick up a bingo card from any of the participating stores. Each box on the card has the name of a Greensburg business on it. To check off each box, shoppers have to find an Elf on the Shelf hidden somewhere in the store.
Those who earn a bingo will be entered into a raffle to win gift cards worth at least $10 from each of the participating businesses.
“It’s pretty well-received,” Lampl said of Small Business Saturday in Greensburg. “We get a lot of people, as long as the weather’s good, who walk around downtown. … It’s just a good way to get people to walk into businesses other than the ones they normally would.”
Owner of Petagogy pet store on East Pittsburgh Street, Lampl said her business sees a spike in customers on Small Business Saturday. She estimated downtown Greensburg sees three times the typical traffic than on a normal Saturday.
Small Business Saturday exposes people to new businesses and encourages customers to keep their money in their own community, Beeghly said.
“These small businesses give back to the community,” she said. “Of course they employ people, which contributes to building the economy, but they give back in many ways through donating.”
Quincey Reese is a TribLive reporter covering the Greensburg and Hempfield areas. She also does reporting for the Penn-Trafford Star. A Penn Township native, she joined the Trib in 2023 after working as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the company for two summers. She can be reached at [email protected].
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