Nov. 30—The Shop Local weekend brought a selection of discounts for shoppers choosing to utilize local businesses for their holiday gifts.
Mistletoe Market, held on Saturday at the London Community Center, combined crafters of all origins into one location, still offering $10 off purchases.
According to Julie Rea, executive director of London Downtown, sponsor of the event, over 1,500 people came out on the busiest shopping weekend of the year. With 42 vendors displaying their goods, the "Early Access" shopping brought crowds out during the first part of the event that opened at 9 a.m. The success of that will be a focus for next year, Rea said, by offering special shopping hours once again.
"We are excited that each year (this is the third year) that our vendors and our shopper continue to grow," Rea said. "London Downtown is proud to offer quality vendor events to our downtown community. Those shoppers will also stick around to shop our brick and mortar stores and eateries."
A new attraction this year was 14-year-old Rose Stanko, whose booth of Soggy Doggy offered handmade jewelry and crocheted items. Stanko is the youngest vendor and will hopefully spark more interest for the teen crowd to create their business or support the youngest generation of crafters.
Rea said that a new venture, Peppermint Plaza, will be housed in the former Magee's building on the corner of East 5th and Main streets this year. The new business will be open on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2, and is hosted by MLC Photography. The next two weekends this market is hosted by London Downtown. Shopping hours are from 5 to 8 p.m. each Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Saturday. Those dates are Dec. 8 and 9 and Dec. 15 and Dec. 16. Vendors participating in this event will be posted on the London Downtown webpage.