Well, following Black Friday
comes Small Business Saturday to
encourage folks to shop local.
A lot of different communities in Western New
York have special events going on tomorrow,
and among them is a holiday shop and
stroll in the Upper BlackRock Historic
Preservation District in the City of Buffalo.
More than a dozen small
businesses there are taking part.
If you do things right,
you might even win 100 bucks.
We asked Barbara Rowe to join us
live here on the town hall tonight.
She is chair of the Board for Vision Niagara.
Barbara, we appreciate you taking some time.
Force on what is the day before?
A very busy day for you.
Talk to us.
It was interesting.
I saw what you guys put out in
terms of some prizes that you're
going to be offering and also just
kind of the nuts and bolts of this.
When's it happening?
What do people know they can expect tomorrow?
Ohh, that's great.
Thanks so much for giving us some time.
Yeah, traditionally,
the Small Business Saturday is Saturday
after Thanksgiving and we're jumping
on that in the Niagara St Corridor
here in Upper Black Rock to try to
get more people to come and visit
the established businesses and all
the new businesses that are here.
We're really seeing quite a change
happening in this neighborhood,
as some of you may have noticed.
So it's going to be between the area
of Auburn and Breckenridge and there's,
as you said, over 12.
Businesses that are participating,
please feel free to stop by at 1270
Niagara St We're Vision Niagara is
going to have a pop up and I have
some cookies thanks to rich products,
some cider and pick up this passport
that we've produced and you can
take that to the various businesses
that are participating or you
could pick one of those up at any
of the participating businesses,
get five of them, those businesses to stamp.
That and then let us know give and
either by stopping back at our pop
up before 4:00 PM or taking a photo
of your passport and dropping that
to our Instagram at Vision Niagara
and we'll pop a raffle ticket in
for you and we'll be doing the
drawing at 4:00 o'clock for $100.
One other thing,
Mike,
I wanted to tell you was that all of the
businesses are offering something special.
So for example,
there's a brand new business called
the Saltery twin pedals Seltzer.
City and the old resurgence building and
they're having a 2 for one special and
this is their grand opening weekend.
So there's any number of specials
going on and we hope folks will check
out our neighborhood because it's,
it's really a growing and very
cool kind of environment.
If somebody hasn't been in there in a while,
if it looks so great and I'll
ask more about that in a moment.
But first tell us about small business.
Saturday has grown so much and I
think people are very cognizant
of the importance, right,
of shopping local during the holiday season.
But now so many communities just like yours,
even just small neighborhoods,
are doing these big events.
You kind of have to get creative
like what you're doing here with this
passport to entice people to come to
you and and not go somewhere else, right?
That's right. Yeah. Supporting our
small businesses is so important.
It's so easy to go on Amazon
or go to the big box stores.
But we've got these wonderful
entrepreneurs that are really
offering unique products and really
building a thriving community for us,
hiring local people, offering things that
you can't get in a lot of the big boxes.
We have a florist, wildroot,
floral that is just amazing.
Gaddy's plants. It's great.
We've got a gallery called.
Raft of sanity.
One really needs to visit there because it's
got some beautiful artwork to check out.
So yeah, be sure to, you know,
support those small businesses.
It just helps us all grow.
Absolutely. Barbara,
I've only got about 30 seconds left,
but tell me about the changes that
you've seen there in in Black Rock.
It's very exciting.
It's one of those places in Western New
York that seen a real transformation
over the last 10 years.
It's been a huge transformation
because we've had a number of
organizations that have worked with us.
To help realize what could make this
area better and the reconstruction of
Niagara St has really transformed it.
It's made it pedestrian friendly.
You can see families here now,
dog walkers, a lot of people coming
in the area that you wouldn't have
seen before because of the traffic
coming that's gone on and the
bike lanes and people can really
now start to appreciate a part
of the city that is right there
on the international waterfront.
You know, we have the Black Rock Canal,
the Niagara River.
We sit on an escarpment where you
can see the water.
It's really a special location
and folks can finally appreciate
that a little bit better rather
than speeding through on their
way to one place or another.
Absolutely. Barbara Rowe with
Vision Niagara, thanks so much
for taking some time for us
on on the eve of this big day.
Best of luck to you.
Thank you. All right. Take care.