‘It’s just helping support someone’s dream’: Local businesses push shopping local for holidays

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - As holiday shopping starts to ramp up, local businesses are relying on people to think of them in the coming weeks.

Some Lincoln small businesses said this week kicks off their busiest time of the year and supporting them not only helps their business, but it also puts money back into the community.

Goldenrod Pastries said right now, it’s all hands on deck. With a team of five bakers working what feels like around the clock.

“We’ve had the ovens on since 5:30 this morning and so almost 12 hours now, and we’re not done,” said Angela Garbacz, owner of Goldenrod. “We’re doing about, you know, 500 or 600 pies over two days.”

Garbacz said she knows it’s easy to go to a supermarket and pick up a holiday pie but shopping local gives you a good product and makes a difference.

“We employ 15 people and I think that the importance of shopping small is like we are putting that, the money we make, right back into the community,” Garbacz said.

Paige Flynn, the owner of (pk)flynn Home & Market, said in terms of how much they sell all year long the holiday season can do a lot to bring that figure up in a short amount of time.

“The next two months will probably account for 50% of our sales,” Flynn said. “So it’s an important couple of months in retail.”

Both owners are noticing customer numbers ticking back up since the height of the pandemic. According to Lincoln city officials, money spent on local businesses in the capital city has tripled from this time last year.

“It’s just helping support someone’s dream,” Flynn said. “I think all the local shop owners are such creative people and it’s just fun. It helps our families and our employees.”

The City of Lincoln is encouraging shoppers to hit local businesses this weekend for Small Business Saturday and events throughout the season like the Christmas Market in the Haymarket.

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