Merkley Encourages Oregonians to Support Small Businesses over Holiday Weekend

Portland, OR – Oregon’s Senator Merkley helped kick off the holiday shopping season today when he visited small businesses in Northwest Portland today to encourage Oregonians to support small business during the holiday season. Senator Merkley also highlighted a local small business campaign called Little Boxes that encourages Oregonians to shop Portland’s small businesses to earn discounts and win prizes.

“Taking the time to shop locally during the holidays is a simple step to help our small businesses thrive,” said Senator Merkley. “Small businesses are key to our economic success, and I encourage everyone to spend Thanksgiving celebrating family and friends and then take some time during the weekend to explore and shop Oregon’s small businesses.”

During today’s event Senator Merkley visited four small businesses that are part of the Little Boxes campaign.  Senator Merkley was joined today by Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish and co-founder of Little Boxes, Will Cervarich. Little Boxes is a city-wide shopping event and prize raffle on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. For the two days after Thanksgiving, Little Boxes encourages shoppers to discover the quality and variety of Portland’s local retail shopping scene.

“Little Boxes is a uniquely Portland event– and has quickly become an annual celebration of local small business,” said Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. “Neighborhood small businesses are the backbone of our local economy. They employ half of Portland’s workforce, and for every dollar we spend at a local small business, almost 70 cents stays in the local economy.”

“We started Little Boxes to amplify the profile of Portland’s independently owned, specialty retailers during the kick off to the holiday shopping season,” said Will Cervarich, co-founder of Little Boxes and co-owner of betsy & iya. “It can be difficult to compete in the noisy world of holiday marketing, so we founded Little Boxes to pool the resources of what’s now become 215 shops citywide to create a fun way to experience Portland’s vibrant local shopping scene on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.”