Local merchants like Small Business Saturday

November 27, 2012 at 6:00 a.m. | Updated November 27, 2012 at 6:00 a.m.

Court Street basks in the festive glow of the Brick District's many Christmas lights. Many downtown merchants reported positive yields from this year's Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving aimed to draw business to smaller stores and counterbalance major shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Small Business Saturday in Fulton was highly successful for some and average or above average for others, local retail merchants report.

The Saturday event after Thanksgiving was started by American Express to promote local businesses. First observed in 2010, it is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday that feature large retail stores and e-commerce stores.

Small Business Saturday is designed to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize small local stores.

"It was a great day for us," said Virginia McCoskrie, owner of Smockingbird's Gifts, 529 Court St. "I definitely will participate in Small Business Saturday again next year. We promoted a sale on Christmas ornaments."

"We had a really good day on Saturday," said Jessi Johnson, assistant manager of Orscheln Farm & Home, 1310 Business 54 South. "Our sales were up quite a bit over the same Saturday a year ago. We like the idea of encouraging people to shop locally. Everyone benefits from that. It's a great idea."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.