A record 63 stores will be participating in Saturday’s seventh annual Shop Owensboro campaign.
That’s up from 60 stores last year, 51 the year before that and 46 the year before that.
“People are getting excited,” Candance Castlen Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, said last week.
Last year, she said, a lot of stores made their stretch goal — a goal above and beyond what they actually expected to make on the Saturday after Thanksgiving — by mid-morning.
“Shop Owensboro is our local version of Shop Small Saturday,” Brake said. “Over the past few years, this event has grown into an exciting movement where shoppers from all over make a day of supporting our local shops and merchants. There is a grass-roots empowerment effect when so many people plan the day to keep their money at home. The economic impact of those dollars spent here multiply several times.”
Independence Bank sponsors the event, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday.
They’ll begin handing out 500 shopping bags with 63 discount coupons inside at both the Frederica Street and Kentucky 54 locations at that time.
And people will begin lining up hours before that.
Last year, the first shoppers arrived at the Frederica location at 6:30 a.m. — 21/2 hours before the doors opened.
By 9 a.m., just before the doors opened, the line stretched back from the bank to the sidewalk and down to 24th Street — nearly a block away.
Brake said several of the businesses have become creative with activities in their stores during Shop Owensboro.
She said shoppers come from several counties for the event.
“It’s become part of our Thanksgiving tradition,” Brake said.
Most stores are in Owensboro, but some, like Preservation Station, are out in rural areas of the county.
These are the participating stores:
270 Power Yoga
Adorn Boutique
Azzip Pizza
Be Real Sports Cycling & Fitness
Bella Ragazza Boutique
Boutique 54
Budget Blinds of Owensboro
Bushay’s Men’s Boutique and Home Decor
Byron & Barclay Fine Goods & Apparel
Consumer Mall
Crazy Me Gifts & Apparel
Cryo Body Creations
CYO Brewing
Drake’s
Embellish
En Vogue
Excursions
Gadsook
Gene’s Health Food
Hill View Farms Meats
Home Inspired
In The Groove
J’s Liquor and Cheese Shop
Kidstop Children’s Boutique
Kuntry Kutter
Lance & Co Jewelers
Legacy Salon and Spa
Legends
Madison Square Boutique
Naturaleigh
Nick T. Arnold
Nick T. Arnold — Kentucky 54
Niko’s Bakery and Café
Owensboro Family Pharmacy and Wellness
Owensboro Health Healthpark
Owensboro Peddlers Mall
Party Paper Place
Peacocks & Pearls
Preservation Station Market and Event Center
Pure Barre Owensboro
Rayelle Collection
Red Wing Shoes
Rising Lotus, Inc.
Robin’s Resale & Boutique
Scentsy, Leslie Roberts
Shoe Stop
Simply Chic Home Accents
SIP Owensboro
Starbucks (Frederica Street)
Studio Slant
The Christmas Store at Integrity
The Crème Coffee House
The Earle
The Red Door Boutique
The Scrub Shoppe
The Sturdy Hinge
The Willow Tree
Tom Blue Furniture
Tractor Supply Company — Starlite Drive
Trison’s Gifts
Visit Owensboro
Welborn Floral
Wheatgrass Juice Bar