The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and local business owners encouraged Portlanders to ditch the big box stores and shop local for ‘Small Business Saturday.’
‘Small Business Saturday’ takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and encourages people to support their neighborhood business owners at a time when major retailers are roping shoppers in with holiday deals.
At the Portland Saturday Market, a number of vendors rely on their sales to support themselves and their families, including Benjamin McCarthy, the owner of Dream Shark, who has been a vendor at the Portland Saturday Market since 2018.
READ ALSO: SURVEY | 3 in 4 shoppers would do all holiday shopping at small businesses if they could
“Taking part in Small Business Saturday helps businesses like my own thrive and stay alive for the next year to come,” McCarthy, said. “We all kind of close up for January and February, so having a really amazing start in November and December is really important for keeping all of our businesses alive and well.”
It comes as there is a lot of uncertainty for local businesses at the moment.
Some store owners say they’re not only experiencing rising costs due to inflation and tariffs, some are still working to recover from losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and others are dealing with a rise in vandalism and crime.
Tim Shaw, the co-owner of Bold Coffee and Books, said the biggest challenge has been instability.
Shoppers were quick to support local on Small Business Saturday – KATU News photo on November 29, 2025
“I think there is a lot of price markups,” Shaw said. “It fluctuates a lot, so it’s hard to know what to expect, and when it’s hard to know what to expect, we can’t stabilize anything. When we can’t stabilize anything, our customers don’t always know what to expect.”
Chelsea Luker, owner of Wildlife Soap and Oils, tells KATU many of her materials have doubled in cost.
“I’m just trying to keep my prices low still,” Luker said. “I don’t really want to rise with everything else.”
At the same time, Luker said that by shopping local, you’re paying for quality over quantity.
“When you shop locally, you get higher quality products and it is worth the money,” Luker said.
Shaw said another benefit to shopping local is what comes around, goes back around.
“Profits stay local,” Shaw said. “Everything else is local. We buy as much local stuff as we can, so we’re also supporting local businesses as well.”
A number of Portland City Councilors said they recognize the challenges Portland businesses are facing.
Just last month, City Council passed a resolution that aims to respond to those challenges called the Storefront Support Program.
The program will work with local businesses to crack down on crime and vandalism, and will perform “exit interviews” with businesses that close their doors to better understand what factors are hurting businesses the most.
Shaw tells KATU collaboration from the city is extremely important when it comes to keeping the local economy thriving.
“I’ve seen great improvement over the last year or so, maybe two years, but I think there’s a lot more to go, right? We can do better than what we’re doing,” Shaw said. “To have our city have our backs, is, that’s great news.”
Luker echoed that sentiment, saying it’s crucial that to continue focusing on ways to revitalize the city. She said everyone benefits.
“To, like, have everyone put a focused effort during the holidays on bringing money back into your local economy is a really big thing, because we need that down here, especially downtown,” Luker said. “Bringing people down here to go eat at the local restaurants, going out and shopping at the local stores and coming to the markets. It’s all really great to see.”
Shaw tells KATU in the current “world of convenience,” there are still many ways to support local businesses right from home, whether that’s ordering from their online website or making a donation so they can pay it forward.
“The more support I get, the more support I can offer, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Shaw said.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) also rallied around the holiday, sponsoring free on-street parking and all five SmartPark locations.
PBOT says parking will also be free the weekends of Dec. 13-14 and Dec. 20-21.
