The holiday season is one of the biggest times of year for many local business owners

Last weekend’s Holiday Open House in Downtown Rhinelander brought in more foot traffic to the area than Zach Hext has seen for the annual event in the three years he’s had his Magic Man Games store downtown.

“I know, not just us, but there was a few of the shops that had fantastic sales weekends. It was good to see, and I was glad that the community was able to kind of come together, at least see what’s offered downtown,” said Magic Man Games owner Zach Hext.

Hext is having sales for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

This time of year is always busy for his store that sells a range of games and gives people a place to play them.

He’s expecting this year to be one of the best in the five years he’s been in business.

“In the last couple years, there’s been a trend away from some of the box stores, away from some of the online stuff. It’s been we’ve seen an uptick in that the shop local mentality,” said Hext.

Hext says shopping local isn’t just important for his other small business in the area, it’s important for communities as a whole.

$68 out of every $100 spent at local stores remains in the local economy, according to Capitol One shopping research.

“If you keep your money local, your money comes back to you. It gets invested in your community,” said Hext.

Ruth Hempel at Forth Floral says it even goes beyond that.

The Rhinelander business has been in her family for nearly 125 years and is currently run by her and her husband, Henning.

She calls local business owners the front line of the community, often the ones contributing to local fundraisers and events.

“I just feel like small business is the heart, the backbone, the heartbeat of your community,” said Hempel.

This time of year is also busy for her business, right up there with Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Hempel says this season and the Holiday Open House is something she always looks forward too, especially as more businesses have opened in Rhinelander in the last couple of years.

“Even the ones that aren’t right downtown, there’s just a lot of variety and a lot of neat businesses and products and services available in our town,” said Hempel. “I almost feel like it’s a little bit of a renaissance for Rhinelander. It’s exciting.”

Hempel and Hext know there are a lot of options for shopping, but when you do they hope you shop local.

“If you can keep your money local, it will help benefit you and your community more than it does anything else. That’s why I always say, if you can shop local, do it,” said Hext.

Hempel says community support goes both ways.

“I really feel the love. We couldn’t have been here for all these years if we didn’t have a great staff. We have amazing people that work with us and the support of the community. If we didn’t have the community support, we wouldn’t be here. We’re very thankful, and we’re aware of it all the time,” said Hempel.

Saturday marks 15 years since Small Business Saturday was created as a way to support small businesses during the holidays and throughout the year.

Since it was founded, people have spent an estimated $201 billion at small businesses on Small Business Saturday.

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