{"id":63793,"date":"2025-11-28T20:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/63793\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T20:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T20:03:08","slug":"businesses-encourage-community-to-shop-local-for-small-business-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/63793\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses encourage community to shop local for Small Business Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Despite a windy and chilly Friday morning, businesses setting up in Vinoy Park hope Saturday will turn up the heat in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow afternoon around 11:00am, you won\u2019t be able to see across the sidewalk,\u201d said Susie Going.<\/p>\n

Vendors spent the day preparing for a big weekend at Shopapalooza in St. Pete.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Tampa Bay 28 met Going, owner of \u201cOh 4 Succ\u2019s Sake.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do succulent arrangements in unique containers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Going explained just how important Small Business Saturday is to them.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not some big corporate company, mega millionaire that you\u2019re supporting,\u201d said Going. “You\u2019re supporting your neighbors, your friends, all of your local people that you live and see every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the look of years past, Shopapalooza<\/a> is sure to draw a big crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Shapapalooza\"<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

“We have around 350 vendors, all local in the greater Tampa Bay area, and we expect to have a really beautiful weekend with up to 20,000 shoppers,\u201d said Jamie McWade, the Event Coordinator for Shopapalooza.<\/p>\n

McWade thinks now more than ever supporting local mom and pop shops is so important.<\/p>\n

“I think supporting everyone that\u2019s out here with all these unique goods is just a really great way to give back and also to find something fun and different than you would find in a big box store,\u201d said McWade.<\/p>\n

Just down the lawn, Tampa Bay 28 met local artist Alyssa Marie with Alyssa Marie Gallery.<\/p>\n

“I will be selling my prints, my notecards, some stained glass, and I\u2019ll also be facilitating a paint by number activity that everybody can participate in,\u201d said Marie.<\/p>\n

Businesses are encouraging the community to come out all weekend and shop small.<\/p>\n

“We work so hard to make the products that we make and share them with our community, so to have an event that brings tens of thousands of people to come out and support these businesses, it keeps us alive. It keeps us going,\u201d said Marie.<\/p>\n

Shopapalooza is a two-day event from 10:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, Nov. 30 at Vinoy Park in downtown St. Pete.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Mary

Mary O\u2019Connell has a primary focus on education-related stories for Tampa Bay 28. But she also keeps an eye on public health concerns and the always-changing car insurance market. Reach out to Mary to share any of your questions or concerns.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lawsuit alleges deputy driving 97 mph without lights and siren killed truck driver<\/p>\n

Deputy was speeding to call involving a fight among elementary school students on school bus when black box shows he was driving nearly double the speed limit on busy highway<\/p>\n

Lawsuit alleges deputy driving 97 mph without lights and siren killed truck driver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Despite a windy and chilly Friday morning, businesses setting up in Vinoy Park hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[205,38201,38202,38203,38204,596,35883,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670,208],"class_list":["post-63793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-abc-action-news","tag-alyssa-marie","tag-alyssa-marie-gallery","tag-jamie-mcwade","tag-oh-4-succs-sake","tag-pinellas-county","tag-shopapalooza","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}