PHOENIX — Millions of people are spending money this holiday weekend, but Saturday is a day meant to help uplift small businesses.
More than 130 small business owners set up shop at the Phoenix Flea at the Heritage Square and Science Park. Crowds came in right at the start at 10 a.m., coming out to support small business owners.
“A lot of people don’t know I exist, so when you do these things, it’s mostly just showing people that you exist,” said Tony Garcia, the owner of Tony G Styles.
Garcia started his small business a few years ago when he started reselling his personal stuff online and then repurposed some old goods. He started painting on shoes, like Nikes, and customizing them for people.
“This is my first time here at Phoenix Flea. It’s pretty exciting. It’s my first year being out in the markets in general,” he told ABC15.
That’s not the case for Chasen Hyder, the owner of Hyder Handcrafted. For Hyder, this is the second small business he started, and he feels it is more successful than his first.
“It’s learning a lot of different things and having to help yourself. It’s hard but very rewarding,” Hyder said of being a small business owner.
His laser engraving business is seeing success in its focus on bucket list travel maps, allowing families to customize and mark things off their bucket lists in a customizable way.
“Just kind of experiencing things together as a community and then supporting your community. Yeah, that’s Small Business Saturday for me for sure,” he said.
Even though inflation is still high, millions of people across the country are still coming out to support their small shops. According to a National Retail Federation survey, it estimates nearly 66 million shoppers would be out on Saturday.
