Pueblo small businesses are ready to roll out the red and green carpet in honor of Black Friday, Nov. 29 and Small Business Saturday, Nov. 30, providing customers a shop-at-home experience for holiday gifts that will boost the local economy.
Small business shopping events “have a huge impact on the success of our small local businesses. Shopping local during the holiday season may be what achieves a profitable year for that business,” said Duane Nava, executive director of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce.
“The Pueblo community is only as strong as our small business community,” Nava said.
Here’s a look at what some Pueblo businesses are doing to celebrate.
Locally Yours Black Friday Market
The Fuel & Iron Food Hall, 400 S. Union Ave., is set to host a Black Friday Market from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29. Puebloans are urged to shop small and support local makers at the event. There will be more than 15 unique vendors offering fine handcrafted gifts and one-of-a-kind treasures for everyone on your list.
The Ethos Holiday Market
The Ethos, 615 Mesa Ave., is set to host a Holiday Makers-Rage Market from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30. The event is a unique collaboration between the organizers of the Makers Market and the “Gay-Rage” queer-led community garage sale designed to offer a diverse, fun, holiday shopping experience.
More than 30 vendors from throughout southern Colorado will be offering, “paintings, prints, T-shirts, handmade candles and jewelry,” said organizer Sandrah Pelton-Thomas. “We will have Tarot readings, cyber artists, homemade cookies and so many different people coming together.”
Uncle Stoop’s stained glass art will showcase “a really unique and fun artist whose work is on the edgy, spooky side, but he also does pride pieces,” Pelton-Thomas said. “We have a vendor who offers hand-mixed soil and plant starters and other vendors who have traditional garage-sale wares.”
The Ethos’ Abstract Bar will be offering a limited selection of special mocktail drinks and food in honor of the event. Passport maps will allow shoppers to find each vendor and if they secure the vendors’ signatures they can “get free things at the bar,” she said.
Find out more on the Ethos Pueblo Facebook page facebook.com/ethospueblo.
Unique Treasures: Plant it yourself
Unique Treasures, 213 S. Union Ave., will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Small Business Saturday offering an unusual, family-fun shopping experience.
Owners Hector and Ruth Jauregui recently moved the shop to downtown Pueblo after eight years on the East Side. It is a haven for both plant lovers and antique lovers looking for historic treasures.
“You can pick a plant at the plant station, pick a pot and put them together at the plant bar,” Hector Jauregui explained. “It is something different and brings new life to downtown — it is always packed in here.”
The experience of creating your own potted plant is “a good time. Bring the kids, the whole family,” he said.
The potted plants are “not expensive. We have $5 plants and pots as low as $3,” he said.
Find out more about Unique Treasures on the business’s Facebook page facebook.com/uniquetreasures22.
Have a Lucky Day
Lucky Day, 107 W. B St., is a collective gift and toy shop where 27 vendors offer a variety of products from loveable stuffed animals to jewelry, art and 3-dimensional prints.
Owned by Frank and Saylor Suarez, the shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. for Small Business Saturday. The shop specializes in being a community space for local neurodivergent and nonverbal creators, offering them a rare chance to sell what they make.
“We have vendors from all different walks of life and for them, having an opportunity to sell their products is everything,” Saylor Suarez said.
“My best friend’s son is autistic and recently started talking. One of the things he says is, ‘Have a Lucky Day’ so this shop had to be an ode to him,” she explained, pointing out the shop sells his earrings made “with all his love and devotion.”
Other items include children’s clothing, art prints, stickers, shadow-boxes, infusables for craft beverages, novelty socks, sippy cups and coffee tumblers that are like functional art. The “absolutely beautiful” resin-poured cups keep coffee hot for hours, Saylor Suarez said.
“We have three vendors offering adorable handmade stuffed animals. Some of the animals are sensory-friendly and have fidget-like attachments kids can play with,” she explained.
The Suarezs have nine printers and got into making 3-dimensional prints, like dragons, when a medical setback forced Saylor to give up cutting glass for her stained-glass pieces.
“This shop is my pride and joy, but by the end of the year we will close the store,” she said, pointing out her full-time job is working as a project manager at the state hospital and her husband is experiencing medical issues.
“We have no intention of quitting the 3D prints, but we don’t get enough foot traffic at the store to make it feasible to pay an employee to run it,” she said.
To find out more about Lucky Day, go to the business Instagram page at instagram.com/aluckydayonbstreet/.
Ketchum’s Creations: From Hobbit doors to cat condos
Donn and Jodi Ketchum started Ketchum’s Creations 13 years ago and while they don’t have a storefront, they help Puebloans attain those custom kitchens, furniture, doors, gates and all sorts of creations they need to jazz up their homes.
In honor of Small Business Saturday, the Ketchums are offering gift certificates to help make very special dreams come true for Puebloans who are looking for unusual gifts. The couple have made everything from Hobbit doors to a climbing wall and even a cat condo.
“Recently we made an insulated cat condo for a colonist in north Pueblo,” Donn Ketchum said. “It holds up to 22 cats.”
The feral cats are able to use the condo for shelter, plus it enables the colonist to get ahold of the cats so they can be taken in to get fixed and control the population. When Ketchum posted the finished product of the cat condo on social media, many others expressed interest in getting a similar product.
“Jodi is working on plans for smaller cat condos,” Donn Ketchum said.
The couple also recently finished building a 12-foot indoor climbing wall that simulates the cracks of a Yosemite National Park climb with gaps ranging from a half inch to 32 inches wide.
“It’s hard to keep up with reinventing the wheel for every project, but it’s fun,” Donn Ketchum said.
“We just made a half-circle gate with driftwood from Lake Pueblo. We get permits to collect the driftwood and use it to make all sorts of furniture,” he explained.
One of the setbacks the couple endured last year was the hacking of their social media sites and the loss of more than 700 followers. Ketchum is trying to rebound with new social media sites named Ketchums Creations without the apostrophe the old pages had.
To find out more about Ketchum’s Creations call 720-633-7051 or visit the business Facebook page at facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563154229120, or Instagram page at instagram.com/ketchumscreations/.
More:The rumors of Fuel & Iron Food Hall’s closure aren’t true, but it is changing. Here’s how
Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain atsubscribe.chieftain.com.
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