HOULTON — Last year, Marie McCall of Houlton decided she was going to attempt to do at least half of her holiday shopping in Aroostook County.
“I found several gifts at Country North Gifts like I do every year,” she said. “I also was able to find a few things for a cousin at Cole’s Shoe Store, which is a store I’ve been shopping at for more than 25 years.”
McCall and several of her friends also went to Presque Isle earlier this month to attend the annual holiday light parade, which is something they’ve done each of the past few years and turned it into a shopping experience.
That is the kind of activity that the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce is counting on, according to Theresa Fowler, its executive director.
“The holiday light parade is always a very popular event for us,” said Fowler. “It brings a lot of people into downtown Presque Isle, which it did again this year. We in turn believe it encourages people to shop at our downtown businesses. We always hear from our downtown business owners that it is one of the events that they most look forward to during the year because it helps to drum up business for them.”
In addition to hosting the light parade, the chamber has taken on other events to encourage local shopping in both Presque Isle, Caribou and the surrounding communities. Fowler said that the chamber is running ads encouraging people to shop locally and conducted a Small Business Saturday campaign over the Thanksgiving weekend that she said was “very well received” by merchants.
“We also have something called Chamber Gift Checks, which come in $10, $25 or $50 increments and can be redeemed at any participating merchant,” she said. “Those have gone over really well and encourage shopping within your town.”
At the St. John Valley Chamber of Commerce in Madawaska, chamber Executive Director Brian Bouley said his organization organized both a Black Friday campaign and a Small Business Saturday campaign that included a free breakfast that coincided with the opening of Orchid’s Restaurant at a new location. It attracted several hundred people.
“We passed out coupons that could be used at the nearby stores,” he said. “Those worked really well. We gave a couple hundred away. The whole idea of the breakfast was to bring more people into the Main Street area, and it was a great plan and we are going to continue to do it. Fort Kent was also having a Small Business Saturday campaign that day so I wasn’t sure how well it was going to go, but I was hugely surprised. Next year we are going to do it at a different restaurant. It is a great way for people to step into a place they have never been before.”
He also said that the town has been running ads on the local radio station promoting shopping local, and some of the businesses are giving away gift certificates and offering discounts.
He pointed out for instance that on Small Business Saturday, “Robert’s Jewelry gave away $50 gift cards to the first twenty people who walked through the door. So they had a line out the door first thing when they opened. That was such a generous thing for them to do.”
Back in Houlton, McCall said she hasn’t quite finished her holiday shopping or met her goal of purchasing half of her goods in The County.
“Each year I get a little bit closer to it,” she said laughing. “I am doing better meeting that goal than I am getting my shopping done earlier than the day before Christmas.”
