A chocolate shop and toy store in one. Sweet!. Goodies Texas in downtown McKinney sounds like a great place to spend some time and money. But unless you live or work in and around McKinney, you've probably never heard of the two-year-old shop. Locals like Sara Johnson keep this family business in business.
"I prefer to shop with the local merchants because I know where my money's going and I know it's important to their families and that's how they make their living," said Johnson.
Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday (created by American Express in 2010) is all about not forgetting the little guy who puts in long hours and takes on great financial risk to try to make it as an entrepreneur.
"Just getting them [customers] down here, just keeping the doors open," said Gretchen McKenney who’s owned a home décor store on the square in McKenney for a decade.
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"If you don't have the people you don't have the revenue coming in, but it has really picked up this year,"
Conner Howell of Plano and his girlfriend were out spending some cash on Small Business Saturday. Both had shopping bags in hand.
"It's just nice to find something special, unique, a little different that you wouldn't find just anywhere else and so the shops here definitely carry a lot of items like that," said Howell.
What these “moms and pops” lack in advertising ability and volume, they make up for in personalized service. That's something people around here seem to recognize and are flocking to it.
Kristen Lanio co-owns Goodies Texas with her husband.
"Customer service is very important," Lanio said. "That brings 'em back . We care about our customers and they come back for that. Specialized attention and knowing our products."
The fact the money spent in local businesses typically stays in the same community is another big reason Small Business Saturday has grown from an idea three years ago to a fixture during the start of the holiday shopping season.
