COLORADO SPRINGS — It's an unusual time for businesses, with supply shortages and inflation impacting sales. As a busy holiday shopping weekend nears, local shops in Colorado Springs said the support is coming at a good time.
The holiday rush from Black Friday and Small Business Saturday is one of the busiest times of the year for mom-and-pop stores. Local shop owners said they've been impacted by supply chain issues and have to plan ahead this year to make sure holiday inventory is in stock.
"In January we go by all our Christmas stuff and so that, you know, that's a lot of prep work. It's like a year ahead of time. The last three years have been hard. It's hard to plan for you know, we don't know what it's gonna look like," said Leah Riehl, co-owner of Terra Verde, a boutique in downtown Colorado Springs.
In Old Colorado City, Pat Stock, the director for boutiques like EllyBlue, said their main struggle was waiting for shipping delays.
"Shipping has been pushed back. Everybody is shipping later and so in order to have a full store at any given time, we're ordering heavy on the front end," she said.
Local businesses also have trouble competing with big box stores that run Black Friday deals all month long.
"As a small business that is a little frustrating because we can't do that. We, you know, we don't have those kinds of margins. We don't have those kinds of inventory and so we have to limit our discounting," said Riehl.
That's why shop owners like Riehl and Stock said Small Business Saturday is so important for them.
"You supporting us is also supporting other small businesses. You supporting anyone downtown is really helping us for our Christmas season and for a whole year," said Riehl.
Nonetheless, shop owners are still expecting a good turnout this year with high hopes as they roll with the punches to keep shoppers happy.
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