Small businesses pleasantly surprised with holiday shopping during pandemic
CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Small business owners are pleasantly surprised with the holiday shopping turnout this year.
In East Walnut Hills, the streets are filled with holiday décor. It's the final push for last-minute Christmas shopping. It's been a challenging year for small business owners like Diane Christian-Budd, but she's heard one consistent thing from her customers this holiday season.
“I just want to make sure we're shopping small. Or we'll have younger folks coming and go, 'My aunt said I can only shop small for my Christmas gifts this year,'” she said.
She owns Indigenous Craft Gallery. This time of year, the store sells handmade Christmas crafts and ornaments that can only be found in the store.
“Many of them mention they definitely want to make sure that we’re here next year, so they are here now,” she added.
At Woodburn Games, owner Michael Hubbard was nervous going into the holiday season. He didn't know what kind of business to expect, but after Thanksgiving, he said it picked up.
“It’s not a normal holiday season by any means. It’s been much more subdued, but we have been grateful for the folks who have popped in, and we’ve had a lot of support of people coming in,” said Hubbard.
Neighbor Khisha Asubuhi is also feeling that support. She opened Originalitees in the middle of the pandemic. She said people have been strategic where they shop this holiday season.
“We’ve definitely seen some traffic picking up. Whether that’s online or even in store, we’ve had a number of people coming and being very intentional about shopping with small businesses,” said Asubuhi.
Originalitees is meeting its customers' needs in this final stretch of holiday shopping. It's shipping, delivering and still consistently seeing people inside the store.
“I'm very grateful for the community and people that just keep believing in Originalitees and keep buying things from us so we can do more things for the community as well,” she said.
