Nov. 25—ROCHESTER — The annual Holiday Expo in Pine Island gave consumers an opportunity to shop locally for Small Business Saturday.
The Holiday Expo, now in its third year, was organized by the Pine Island American Legion Auxiliary and hosted 18 local vendors with a variety of items. The event was held at the Pine Island American Legion Post 184 in support of Small Business Saturday.
Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 in order to encourage consumers to shop locally. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a similar event was held just down the street at the school. That event was much larger with vendors filling the gymnasium and cafeteria, but it never started up again after the pandemic.
“COVID hit so they were unable to have it for a couple of years and then they just decided they’re not going to do it anymore,” said Linda Kelly, a member of the Pine Island American Legion Auxiliary. “So we thought, let’s give those same vendors a place to have it. It’s smaller, but this is our third year. It’s always been the shop small town Saturday after Black Friday. We had a really nice crowd today.”
Out of the 18 vendors, six of them were from Pine Island. The others are from the surrounding area. The farthest vendor was a woodworker, Karl Schumacher, from Waterville, Minnesota.
Schumacher has been woodworking for around 30 years and started a small business, Schumacher Woodworking and Sawing. He brought a plethora of serving trays, charcuterie boards, cutting boards and more with him for his first time at this event.
Each of the pieces he makes is one-of-a-kind, especially his charcuterie boards and benches. Those are his two favorite items to make because they allow him to take a piece of wood that is rotting out or unusable and give it a purpose.
“The wood, I say it talks to me,” said Schumacher. “It tells me what it wants. The stuff I like to use is something unique. Something you probably just throw away or burn.”
In addition to the woodworking, many vendors came with handmade items like hats, headbands and crocheted stuffed animals.
Heather Gerdes has been crocheting for more than 20 years but just began selling her items about two years ago. She used to just give her work as gifts but was encouraged by a friend to attend the event with her.
She has made a variety of items, including gnomes and hats. Each one of her hats takes her about an hour to finish and her ear warmers take her about 30 minutes.
“Business was good,” said Gerdes. “There’s a lot of customers that were local and came out to support us.”
When selecting the vendors, the Pine Island American Legion Auxiliary wanted to make sure there was a wide range of items for sale. Some vendors had handmade items while others were what Kelly calls “home businesses” and sold items from Avon, Tupperware and Pampered Chef.
“There are not a lot of duplicates here,” said Kelly. “If you have one Tupperware dealer, then you don’t want to let another Tupperware dealer come so try to keep them a little bit separated.”
One unique business present at the Holiday Expo was Links and CO Permanent Jewelry. Sara Bauer and Kaleigh Agrimson started this business out of Zumbrota about a year and a half ago. Bauer and Agrimson are cousins and both wanted to get a permanent jewelry item when they decided to start the business together.
“We thought we would learn and it was just a way for us to spend time together,” said Agrimson. “It’s a great way to spend time together and get out and talk to people. My dad’s been a small business owner for years in the area so it’s good to support small businesses.”
Bauer and Agrimson mostly get customers from word of mouth or social media. They want to be able to give people a way to stay connected with their business.
“A couple of weekends ago, we had sisters come (and) they all wanted to have friendship bracelets, and it was a way for them to have a bond together,” Agrimson said.
The Pine Island American Legion Auxiliary is planning to continue hosting it again next year.