OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Locally owned Nebraska businesses are teaming up for a virtual market this weekend.
A Local Collectiveis the place where you'll find some of the best locally owned shops in Nebraska for clothing, bags, jewelry, candles, and paper goods.
Katie Manganaro, owner of Little Mango, and Jill Dudzinski, owner of Hello Ruby, started A Local Collective two years ago as a way to collaborate for a pop up holiday market. They’ve adapted the idea online now in hopes of helping small businesses make it through these challenging times.
“It has been tough because online shopping is great,” Dudzinski said. “But you can’t feel the product, you can’t touch the product, you can’t get the experience of shopping in the fashion truck."
“It’s been amazing how people are coming through with not only shopping, because I understand not everyone is shopping or spending money right now,” Manganaro said. “They are sharing my business or telling their friends about it.”
29 shopsare participating in the sale this weekend. They’ve had a good first day.
“500% increase (in traffic). It’s just good for people to see all of the shops,” Dudzinski said. “And people who are supporting other shops who haven’t heard of me and vice versa”
The goal of this collaboration is to make it easy for you to shop locally.
“We’re the ones giving donations to the dance teams and basketball teams,” Dudzinski said. “We’re the ones that are trying to help support our communities so in this time when it’s scary out there, if you can shop local, keep your money locally with in our community.”
Each boutique is offering something different, anywhere from 15 to 30 percent off all weekend with the code ShopSmallNE.
