Small Business Saturday: a day where small businesses challenge shopper to show love to their favorite local mom and pop shops.
Saturday was a day where shoppers took their buying power outside of the big box stores.
Basin Arts held their 2nd annual Art Bazaar as one of the marquee events of Lafayette’s Small Business Saturday.
Kelli Sargent is co-owner of Lake Charles based Snake and Monkey Studios.
The studio re-crafts vintage 50 to 100 year old watches into jewelry.
Wwe take each of these watches, pull them apart. We take each gear, each spring, each face, all the little biddy hands and everything. And, then sort all of that all out and start creating a new piece with it,” explained Sargent.
The Art Bazaar is also a networking opportunity for small local artisans to help each other out.
Maurice based small business owner Jayna Anderson recent launched a herbal skin care business called, 5th Dimension.
“I’m a science fiction nerd a little bit, and in the fifth dimension the idea is that endless potential exists and with every action you do, there’s infinite reaction,” explained Anderson.
Who says it’s sort of like the ripple effect when small businesses work together.
“When you shop a small business, typically you’re not just helping one small business, but you’re helping all the small businesses that that business supports. For me I try to source my ingredients locally when I can. I support small farms that use organic permacultural practices in their farming,” explained Anderson.
Brother’s on the Boulevard is one of the original small businesses that helped grow Lafayette.
“When something is bought here, the money stays here. It goes into the banks and the money stays here. When it’s bought in big box stores, it may go into the banks here, but it’s immediately transferred out,” explained Brother’s on the Boulevard co-owner Catherine Abdalla.
Brother’s on the Boulevard, which celebrated 42 years in business on November 20th,prides themselves on offering a personalized customer experience they say can’t be found in a box store.
“The key word is service. But, service for us is we know most of our customers on a first name basis. Know their children, know their grandchildren,” said Abdalla.
