On Black Friday, all the attention is on the deals you can find at the mall, but save some cash for Small Business Saturday.
“Get your friends and family and come out and shop local, shop small,” says Travis Weaver, owner of Manready Mercantile. “Have a good time meeting a lot of good folks.”
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE MANREADY MERCANTILE
Inside Manready Mercantile's Heights location
Visiting his shop on West 19th St. in the Heights is like taking trip back in time. Reminiscent of an Old West trading post, it’s stuffed with tons of handmade items from candles to t-shirts.
“We focus on made in the USA, smaller brands, local businesses,” Weaver says. “We try to get as much stuff as we can made in Houston and made in Texas.”
That’s the same approach over at Space Montrose, tucked next to Common Bond Café along Westheimer and Dunlavy.
“We work with about 200 different artists from around the USA,” says co-owner Carlos Pedraza. “Everything is hand-crafted. We have a lot of one-of-a-kind items.”
About 80 of those artists are from Houston, making a range of items like clothing, art, jewelry and baby gear.
TAKE A LOOK INSIDE SPACE MONTROSE
Inside Space Montrose
“Everything made by independent artists, so there’s a story behind everything in our store,” adds co-owner Leila Susanne Pedraza.
Manready Mercantile and Space Montrose are two of the more than 600,000 small businesses in Houston and Southeast Texas. They help keep the area’s unemployment at 3.8 percent, lower than the national average.
Small businesses also invest in the local community more than national chains. For every $100 you spend at a mom-and-pop shop, $68 stays in Houston. That’s closer to $40 for national chains.
“I think Small Business Saturday is a day that really defines our city because Houston would not be what it is without all the small businesses that make it so wonderful,” says Leila Pedraza. “It celebrates everything I love, everything that makes up our city. It really defines Houston.”
It’s a reminder that when you’re shopping small, you’re really thinking big.
“It’s really important, especially for small businesses these days,” Weavers says. “We need all the help we can get. We need your support.”