C.O. businesses prepare for holiday shopping crowds

In the next six days, there are several shopping holidays, including Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.

On Tuesday, NewsChannel 21 looked into how Central Oregon businesses plan on taking part.

Most businesses said they plan on being open, but without the flashiness typically associated with Black Friday, such as the big sales and early hours at large national retailers.

But some small businesses try to get involved.

Melissa Atillo, the owner of Lost Season Supply, said she plans on having some in-store and online sales starting Friday.

“I love to do it. It’s something I want to do for the community,” Atillo said. “I’m just thankful that I have the community shopping here and supporting our business. I just totally want to do it. I think it’s a good thing.”

The day after Black Friday is called Small Business Saturday. It was created to counter the big retailers.

According to the National Retail Association, about 112 million consumers shopped on Small Business Saturday last year.

But for some businesses owners, including Jeremy Nelson, the owner of Skjersaa’s ski shop, the holiday weekend is just another weekend.

“Our plans for Black Friday are kind of same as normal,” Nelson said. “We open as normal. It’s not that big of an event for us, being a specialty store, it’s kind of a bigger-box store kind of event, for sure.”