Downtown market helps people shop small, local

Black Friday may have been about big box stores, but Saturday put the spotlight on small, local businesses.

About 50 vendors from Middle Georgia sold handmade goods and foods on the corner of Plum and Third streets for the sixth Downtown Macon Open Air Market.

The event coincided with Small Business Saturday, which is observed across the country on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It encourages people to shop at locally owned, brick-and-mortar stores.

Doll clothes, wooden toy cars, pottery, jewelry, jams, body products and clothes were some of the items for sale at Macon’s Open Air Market. Four kinds of tacos were available from La Bella Morelia, a family-owned and operated Mexican restaurant in downtown Macon.

Started in summer 2016, the market averages about 70 vendors and between 1,200 and 1,500 attendees, but the Cherry Blossom Festival event drew 3,500 people, said Ryan Smith, who co-owns and coordinates the market with Cesare Mammarella

“We thought it was something the downtown market needed,” Smith said. “(Shopping local) props up the local economy. You can’t continue to grow a local town if you can’t support a local economy. It’s important to keep the culture of small business afloat in Macon.”

Tisha and Alan Carr, of Bone Creek Farms in Macon, have sold their goat milk bath and body products at every Macon Open Air Market so far.

“It’s downtown Macon, and there’s no better place to try to get people shopping local and trying to support the community,” Tisha Carr said. “(Shopping local) keeps jobs in our community. It keeps money in our community. It helps people be entrepreneurs and live the American dream.”

Paul and Linda Cardwell, of Yellow Rock Farm in Twiggs County, were selling alpaca socks, yarn and dryer balls and goats milk soaps with loofah. This was their fourth time as vendors.

“We love to support local. It encourages people to keep on producing local and taking it to the customers,” Linda Cardwell said.

Local businesses provide quality, homemade items that people won’t find anywhere else, she said. They are the “heart of the town” and bring character to the city, and people need to support them so they can stay open, said Christina Marin, daughter-in-law of La Bella Morelia owner Angelica Marin.

“All these people here are doing something they love and they’re good at. I think we should support them,” said Gail Lilley, of Jeffersonville, who was selling repurposed furniture through her business Chairity.

This story was originally published November 25, 2017 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Downtown market helps people shop small, local."