If you’re reading this, our congratulations for not having been trampled into a coma at Black Friday. Whether you participated in the shopping stampede or not, you might be wondering if there’s any more shopping you can do where you find cheap holiday deals, but maybe cheap holiday deals that don’t require full body armor to get. Well the answer is yes! November 29 is Small Business Saturday, a celebration of the indie shops and small businesses that make Brooklyn go. Small business like say, Robicelli’s (9009 5th Avenue), which is offering sweet deals in the literal and metaphorical sense.
The Bay Ridge cupcake emporium is tempting you to walk though their door with two for $5 deals on cupcakes, brownies and whoopie pies, a free small coffee with any purchase over $10 and a free cookie with any purchase over $15. You might be asking yourself, “Well, now that Thanksgiving is over, do I really need more pie?” And let us stop you right there and say that yes, of course you need more pie, or some cupcakes or something. It’s getting to be winter pretty fast, so eat through the sadness caused by 5pm darkness.
Of course, Robicelli’s isn’t the only place participating in Small Business Saturday. You can also find friendly merchants in Park Slope who are part of the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District will be welcoming shoppers, and if you stick around shopping into the early evening, you can catch the neighborhood’s tree lighting ceremony at 6:30pm on the corner of 5th Avenue and 3rd Street. Whether you love Christmas trees or not, it’s worth it to check it out, because there’ll be hot chocolate from S’Nice, cookies from Tabeel and marshmallows from Du Jour Bakery.
If you’re not in Park Slope, you can also wander Myrtle Avenue in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, where the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership has also been waiting for Small Business Saturday. They’ve got a shopping guide with all of their locally-owned businesses, some of which are offering some good holiday discounts, like buy one, get one half-off for a bag of coffee at Brewklyn Grind (557 Myrtle Avenue) and 30% off rucksacks and duffel bags at Leisure Life (559 Myrtle Avenue). Those could come in handy if you manage to be able to escape the cold for somewhere warmer for a few days.
Really, wherever you shop Saturday as long as you’re hitting up places that don’t have franchises from Brooklyn to Berlin to Brooklyn, Ohio, you’ll be participating in the spirit of Small Business Saturday. So get out there and spend some money on your neighbors, because you know that they’d do the same for you.