Carrying bundled five-month-old Leo, Shannon Troesser and her sister Paige Brockmeyer were enjoying the conversation as much as the novelties during their shopping outing with their mother, Kristin VanDeVelde in Jefferson City Saturday afternoon.
It's a tradition for the ladies to do something together on the weekend following Thanksgiving. This year, it was visiting Small Business Saturday stores.
Troesser said she has passed by the Art Bazaar several times in recent months, intending to stop by at some point.
When she saw the announcement that they would be among 31 Jefferson City area businesses to participate in the national event, Troesser said she knew it was the time.
"Small businesses are fantastic," Brockmeyer said. "There's a sense of nostalgia doing things on a small scale."
Troesser, who owns a local lawn care business, knows the importance of community support and so makes an effort to buy local when possible, she said.
The trio were shopping Saturday for specific people on their Christmas list.
"I'm looking for unique gifts you can only find in places like this," Troesser said.
The boutique-type settings also create the destination-shopping experience the sisters and mother were looking for, too.
"Shopping online is fun to an extent," Brockmeyer said. "But the experience of actually going and seeing something can't be replaced."
Small Business Saturday is a five-year-old, nationwide effort to encourage people to buy Christmas gifts from smaller, independently-owned businesses. This year, Jefferson City area business participation rose from 22 last year to 31.
"Small Business Saturday is a really good opportunity," Brockmeyer said. "It's what got us down here."
Each participating business offered at least one in-store promotion, and customers could enter for gift card drawings.
The Trolley Company also offered Small Business Saturday shoppers a free ride around town at various designated stops.
The day, designated as the Saturday following Thanksgiving, encourages shoppers to experience the advantages of local merchants, such as personal service and supporting the local economy.
"Can every Saturday be Small Business Saturday?" asked Ginny Volkart, a volunteer at the Art Bazaar, which saw a dramatic increase in foot traffic Friday and Saturday.
Several shelves, once full of local artists' wares, were growing lean by the end of the day Saturday. The volunteers even called a few of the nearly three dozen artists on display to see if they had more items to put on the shelves.
"Now, we've gotta go home and make more stuff," Volkart said enthusiastically.