Local shops hope to draw in customers ahead of the holiday season

SALISBURY, Md. – Many people sit at home and use their computers to online shop for the holidays, but instead of staring at a screen get up and head to your local shops for unique handpicked items.

“Online is instant gratification, to come here you have to get out of your comfy chair out of your jammies but it’s well worth it once you’re here,” says Martha Ogburn, of Barefoot Baby Boutique.

While department stores and online shopping sites get ready for their biggest sales of the year, it’s easy to forget those shops that are right in your backyard who are also trying to score big this holiday season.

Ogburn adds, “I’m competing with the internet the World Wide Web, that’s a huge, huge competitor and I have to combat that by providing experiential shopping.”

Local stores like Barefoot Baby Boutique and Angello’s Unique Gifts in downtown Salisbury are having to get creative to get people to walk through their doors and forget the online sites.

Nicole Rogers, the General Manager for Angello’s Unique Gifts explains, “Most of the things we sell in here you can’t find on Amazon so we have products that are unique, that are different. People love coming in here and looking around and saying ‘I’ve never seen this before’.”

Shops like this hope to give customers more than just an item, it’s personal handpicked local trinkets. Unique items they’re having to showcase on social media just to compete with the big box stores.

Rogers says, “We have a Facebook page we have an Instagram account and so we really depend on social media for our advertising and word of mouth.”

“That’s what happens when you’re trying to compete against the big box stores or online shopping you end up having to have a website, which I do, but I don’t want to do that, you know, I want to have interaction with moms and provide a service,” adds Ogburn.

So before you click that check out icon on your computer screen, see what your local boutiques have to offer because shopping local helps more than just the store owners.

“If you live locally you want your community to prosper and so when you are committed to coming in to a local shop you’re getting unique things for your friends and your family, but really your doing everything you can for your neighbors,” explains Rogers.