Fulton thrives on Small Business Saturday

It's no secret that Fulton is a small town, and as such, is filled with small business. And on Nov. 30, the nationally-recognized Small Business Saturday, Fulton's small businesses saw an increase in business, just as the day intended.

"We definitely saw more people," said Danielle Warren, one of the owners of Well Read Books. "We felt like it was a very stead stream throughout the day. It was our second-busiest day of 2013, and we had three times more sales than we did last year on the same day when we had only been open a month."

An additional draw for customers at Well Read was writer Keija Parssinen, author of this year's OneRead book, The Ruins of Us.

"It gave customers a unique experience of speaking to an author," Warren said.

According to Warren, Parssinen likes to stay local too - one of her favorite books, The Absent Woman, is by Columbia author Marlene Lee.

Warren also said that while some customers were out shopping as usual, some made a point to come to small businesses like hers, and that sevearl mentioned dropping by for that reason.

"It means a lot that people say that - they came for Small Business Saturday," she said.

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.