Small Business Saturday success in North Alabama

The evening off.

Small business saturday is a nationwide iniative to get folks to support local businesses in their area.

And with the pandemic making things difficult for many of those small businesses this year -- business owners were hoping for a good sales day.

Waay-31s alexis scott spoke with different businesses about how you can help them out while staying safe.

Many businesses are asking for your support this weekend as you shop for your holiday needs and support small business saturday.

There's a lot of people coming in from out of town and owners want you to know the same social disatcning guidelines are in place.

Once you go inside, you will need to wear a mask and if you're staying to buy anything, just snap a picture and you can support them on social media.

Marilyn swint, snapdragon kids store associate "we've had a great turnout this weekend and we continue to hope that'll be the same throughout the rest of the days and it's been really nice to have the support from our community."

Marilyn swint is a store associate at snapdragon kids boutique in athens.

They had a black friday sale and are pushing for people in the city to shop for small business saturday.

She says -- so far so good.

Miles away in madison... kathleen's bridal is also doing a holiday sale.

It starts saturday and goes through december for the brides to be!

Meighan winston, owner of kathleen's bridal "if a bride says yes, they get to visit our christmas tree and there's a christmas gift on there and they get 15% off their dress, they can get free shoes, free veil, free earrings.

It's just something to promote our business and give a little thanks to our brides or our future brides for all that they've been through during this pandemic," meighan winston is the owner of kathleen's bridal.

She says the bride industry was hit hard early on in the pandemic... but after larger events were allowed to return in alabama -- more brides are coming forward to say yes to the dress.

But she says even if you don't find something when you first walk in... even just sharing the experience with friends and taking photos is enough to push a business forward.

And at snapdragon they're keeping their options open for customers who don't or can't come in store right now.

Marilyn swint, snapdragon kids store associate "we've continued to make sure we can do online and shipping to our customers to help them if they don't feel comfortable or safe to come shop in stores with us," all in all... both shops are getting lots of foot traffic this weekend and they hope it'll continue as it seems more people are wanting to shop at local businesses right now.

And winston told me she's looking forward to the new year to see what it has to offer.

Meighan winston, owner of kathleen's bridal "i feel like there's a unity coming and we're all banding together and i just think we're all ready for a new year and a fresh start," already shot almost everywhere you turn there's a small business who may need your help this season and moving forward to keep their doors open through the next year.

Reporting in madison, alexis scott waay-31 news.