As Thanksgiving approaches, so does one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. For the third consecutive year, the City of Fishers’ is hosting Shop Fishers, inviting the community to shop local during Small Business Saturday. The one-day shopping event, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 25, includes nearly 40 local stores, all offering a different deal or incentive to shop local on Small Business Saturday.
“Shop Fishers started as an effort to support local businesses when the Nickel Plate District was quite literally coming to life,” explained Mayor Scott Fadness. “Each year, residents continue to embrace our local business community by shopping locally during the holiday season. Shop Fishers takes place all day long, offering deals for everyone on your holiday list.”
Shop Fishers features boutiques along with local restaurants, breweries, salons, fitness stores and more. In 2015, more than 112 million shoppers reported shopping small in an effort to support local stores. In Fishers, the results were just as successful:
- Gallery 116 reported its highest day in sales in over 15 years of business. This included a 40 percent increase in sales over Shop Fishers’ 2015 event.
- North Star Health reported its busiest day in 42 years of business, up 42 percent over sales the previous year.
- Boys clothing boutique Roman & Leo reported a 15 percent increase in sales over the 2015 event, and a 300 percent increase in sales over the 2014 event, the first year Shop Fishers was coordinated.
Each business is running a deal specific to their store during the event, and shoppers are encouraged to plan ahead to determine which deals they cannot miss. Details can be found online or inside the Nickel Plate District app, available for download on Apple and Android devices, and includes a list of participating businesses, deals and an event map. A few hard copies of the Shop Fishers map will be available at participating businesses.
During the event, limited Shop Fishers giveaways will be available to the first few customers at each store. Additional Small Business Saturday reusable shopping bags will be available in stores, on a first-come, first-served basis. Shoppers participating are encouraged to snap a picture of themselves out making purchases during the event, and to post them on social media using the hashtag #ShopFishers. One lucky winner will receive a Shop Fishers prize pack with goodies from participating businesses. The winner will be selected on Monday, Nov. 27.