Passports, please.

That will be the refrain Saturday in Skowhegan for Passport to Savings, a new Small Business Saturday campaign, said Kristina Cannon, executive director at Main Street Skowhegan.

The passport is a booklet with pages from 31 participating businesses in Skowhegan and some in Madison.

The idea is to visit a local business to pick up a passport, then shop around at participating businesses and get your passport stamped with a sticker. The more stickers a shopper has, the better chance at winning a $100 gift certificate, said Cannon.

“The passports have been printed by the Paper Clip, and I’m putting them together and will begin taking them around to the businesses,” Cannon said Tuesday at Griffin’s clothing and footwear store, her first of many passport stops. “I wanted to give shoppers another incentive to come downtown other than just discounts. For as many purchases that they make, they’ll get a sticker.”

The businesses will collect all the passports at the end of the day Saturday. Cannon will pick them up next week and the shopper with the most stickers wins the gift card.

Advertisement

First observed in 2010 as a local alternative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature sales at big-box retail stores and online, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to do their shopping at small local businesses. Small Business Saturday is a registered trademark of American Express corporation.

Shop small is the message.

“It’s nice to have a bigger collaborative effect to stay small,” Paula Griffin said. “It’s important for small businesses. This is just a way of giving back to the businesses that give back to the community.”

Cannon said all participating businesses will be offering the passports on Saturday, so she is telling business owners that they may get customers coming in specifically because they saw the discounts offered by their store listed in the passport.

Only one sticker per shopper, Cannon stressed.

“Black Friday has historically been the big push to the start of the holiday season for the big-box stores,” said Donna Russakoff, owner of Russakoff Jewelers on Water Street. “Small Business Saturday gives us, the small retailer, the chance to showcase what we do best. Local businesses offer exceptional service and unique gifts that are not cookie cutter. This is also our opportunity to say thank you to our loyal customers who support us all year long.”

Advertisement

Griffin said Small Business Saturday is “a good kick off” to Skowhegan’s annual Holiday Stroll Dec. 4 and 5. The stroll this year will feature the Holiday Parade on Friday, Dec. 4, and Santa’s Village and other events on Saturday, Dec. 5.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_H


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.