PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — This upcoming Saturday, Nov. 25, many Presque Isle businesses will take part in Small Business Saturday and have special activities planned for shoppers.
Small Business Saturday is a national effort founded by American Express in 2010 to ensure that local economies stay strong and vibrant.
“By shopping locally, the community can help make sure that local small businesses succeed and thrive and make the Presque Isle community and economy stronger,” said Kim Smith, public information officer and grant writer for the City of Presque Isle.
“The public can pick up a special bingo card from the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library,” Smith said. “Then, as shoppers go to any participating local business, they can collect bingo tokens with which to fill the bingo card. The objective is to mark off as many squares on the card as possible.”
Shoppers should look for the Small Business Saturday signs in the windows to identify participating merchants. They can then take their cards back to the library to win prizes.
Smith said according to the Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profiles, there are 144,002 small businesses in operation across the state of Maine that make up 99.30 percent of all the businesses. In 2014, 57.5 percent of employees worked in these businesses, meaning that more than half of workers were working for a small business that year.
“Small businesses play a big role for the local economies of each area across our state and the country in whole,” she added.
