PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Phase II of Downtown Panama City’s Streetscape project began in September. It has closed the road Harrison Avenue from 4th Street to 5th Street.
The stores are still open, and the business owners are counting on local shoppers this weekend.
“Small Business Saturday is our biggest day of the year, so we’re very excited for people to come downtown and shop with all of the local small business owners in historic downtown,” said Lesli Todd, owner of Jute & Palm.
“All of the businesses downtown are open; even with some of the road closure for the Streetscape, the sidewalks are open,” said Main Street Antiques owner Liane Harding.
Small Business Saturday is an initiative the U.S. Small Business Association sponsored since 2011. On this day, consumers are encouraged to shop small and support their local retailers.
Local businesses in Downtown Panama City hope the construction doesn’t keep shoppers away this weekend.
Though the road outside the stores is closed, there is plenty of parking on Luverne and Grace Avenues.
“They even put a walkway between both sides of the road so you can come down the sidewalk and cross over to go to the other shops,” Harding said.
“It is hard to compete with large vendors, Amazon, and everything else. But there are so many unique things in historic downtown that you won’t find on Amazon. So, we hope that people will shop local, shop small, and support people that live right here in their community,” said Todd.
“I just hope that people make the effort. It’s so easy nowadays to just get on your phone and order whatever you want online, but these small businesses depend on people coming in to shop. Specifically, this time of year when we make a good portion of our annual sales during this holiday period,” said Harding.
Shopping local also means keeping the dollars and cents right here in Bay County.
“All the money you spend here goes right back into this community because we spend our community here. So, you’re helping your local community when you’re shopping local,” Harding said.
In addition to the shops downtown, a Small Business Saturday Market will take place at 2440 St. Andrew’s Avenue at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.
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