BELLE FOURCHE—A colorful event to encourage shoppers to support small local businesses was held on Friday November 21. Pink Friday was embraced by businesses and shoppers alike in Belle Fourche.
Pink Friday is the Friday right before Black Friday and is designed to boost small businesses before the large-box store Black Friday promotions.
This year in Belle more businesses than ever before participated in the special day. One of the first businesses in the area to embrace the day was Brittany Wilkinson owner of Belle Flowers and Co. “There are more businesses participating this year and the customers are catching on,” she said. “We were pretty busy all day today! It’s been really good, we did about double of what we did last year, it’s been pretty steady today and we love that!”
And for another small business owner Michelle Evans, Pasque Ladies Fashions and Cowboys TOO!, Pink Friday was good for her businesses too. “Business was really good today, I would say we did better than Black Friday last year,” she said. “It was busiest between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.”
Evans and her businesses teamed up with other local businesses to offer Goodie Bags to Pink Friday shoppers. They started out with 20 bags and were almost out by 3:30 p.m. The bags were full of coupons, gift cards, brochures, samples and gifts. Businesses that contributed to the bags included: Dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Museum, The Rancher’s Daughter, Rollin in the Hills, Red Onion Marketplace, The Breakfast Club, Digits Nail Spa, Hitching Post Tap House, Homestead Store, The Bees Knees Natural Food Store, 2F Custom Grinding, Grossenburg Implement Inc, Mary Kay and Belle Chiropractic and Massage.
Watch for specials around town for Black Friday and don’t forget to shop local the day after on Small Business Saturday. “It is important to shop local because it helps keep our doors open and then we can give back to the community through donations. Anything that comes through our door is just more that we can put back out for the community,” explained Wilkinson.
As for next year? Yes of course look for even more businesses to participate in Pink Friday. “I appreciate my customers very much, you guys turned up this year! I can’t wait to see what we do next year to make it even bigger and better for our community,” said Wilkinson.
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