Claire BerlinHopefully you’ve heard the term “Small Business Saturday” tossed around with the usual shopping terms we associate with Thanksgiving season such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Small Business Saturday first started in 2010 and is a counterpart to the two more famous shopping days. It encourages people across the country to support the local, small businesses in our communities. Make sure to use #shopsmall to show your love for your community and share your holiday finds on Small Business Saturday on Saturday, Nov. 28!
Shopping in Athens
Working in Athens I am constantly heading uptown to the local merchants when I need cards, gifts, or other small items that I don’t want to get at the big box stores. Shopping local is the perfect way to support your community economy, get to know your local business owners, and find unique gifts for everyone on your gift list!
Here are a few of my favorite shops in Uptown Athens, however these are just a sampling of what Athens has to offer. Take a walk on Court and Union Streets and look at the Athens County Visitors Bureau for a list of other great stores to support.
Music
Haffa’s Records is perfect for the vinyl collector in your life! The store offers new and used records, with plenty of tables of records to pick through for those who love the sounds of records or just the unique album artwork. The store also sells used DVD’s, CD’s, posters, t-shirts and other music items.
Arts & Crafts
Passion Works Studio is one of those amazing gems in Athens that is always a wonderful place to draw creativity from. Artists with and without disabilities work alongside to create beautiful and unique works of art that is then made available to the public to purchase. The artists are compensated for their artwork and their work has been shown both regionally and nationally.
While you can find many pieces of artwork at Passion Works Studio, from cards to jewelry and paintings, perhaps one of the most well known pieces is the Passion Flower. The Passion Flowers are made from recycled aluminum plates from the local newspaper, making them large 3-d art sculptures. Every flower is hand-painted by studio artists, making each flower colorful and unique! Passion Works even offers flowers in Ohio State Buckeye or Ohio University Bobcat colors for the college sports fan in your life. How neat is that? Each flower is ready to hang and they come in small, medium, and large sizes.
While Passion Works Studio is closed on Small Business Saturday (Nov. 28) the store will have a special online sale on their website on Sunday (Nov. 29) and a Cyber Monday sale (Nov. 30). Check their Facebook page for additional in-store sales and open house events during December!
Clothing & Misc.
Artifacts Gallery is my go to when I need a gift for that friend who either likes handmade ceramics or has an interesting sense of humor. The store has a variety of beautiful ceramic pieces, Athens mugs, and Japanese pottery that are changing often. The store also carries a variety of women’s and men’s clothing, silver jewelry, cards, stained glass artwork and other small gifts. This store is certainly worth a stop on your holiday shopping!
