Shop small, shop local, shop new

While much of the marketing around the weekend after Thanksgiving seeks to direct shoppers toward national brands, the so-called “Small Business Saturday” movement seeks to steer some of that business to small enterprises which help give towns their unique streetscapes.

Among proponents of the movement is American Express, which cites studies that show dollars spent at small businesses — businesses with fewer than 100 employees — are more likely to stay within that local community. In contrast, money spent at larger chains is pulled out of those communities and sent to corporate headquarters.

The Lakes Region is fertile ground for small businesses. The local shopping scene is becoming more varied and plentiful, with several new businesses opening just in time to catch their first holiday shopping season in 2024.

As the bowl turns

Andrew Eaton, who opened Art of Turning in Meredith on Columbus Day Weekend, began his professional life in a much different line of work: marketing. He was running his own consulting business, helping to market national brands, when the COVID pandemic caused him to re-think his work.

“2020 came along, it went downhill, I sold my business,” Eaton explained. He had started wood turning as a way to occupy himself during the pandemic, and soon found himself bringing his creations to craft fairs.

“It turned into a profitable business,” Eaton said. It’s a change of pace from his first line of work.

“It’s much more relaxing. It’s a completely different business but I find I’m able to intertwine my marketing experience and market myself.”

Art of Turning, located on Main Street, is a gallery filled mostly with his own work, and a few creations from other artists. Eaton’s workshop is in Enfield, but he chose Meredith as the location for his gallery because he said he found a greater appreciation for the arts in the Lakes Region.

“One of the big things I’m passionate about is keeping it local, everything in my shop is made in New Hampshire by New Hampshire artists,” Eaton said. “Everything going into my shop is going right back into the local economy.”

This weekend, Eaton will be featuring several sales and will give out gifts with each purchase. This weekend and beyond, he will make a donation to a local food pantry for every cutting board sold.

“We had a good opening weekend,” Eaton said about the launch of his gallery. “Then I think it slowed down a little bit. I think we’re going to pick up and we’ll get ready for a busy Black Friday and Small Business weekend.”

Her plants are rooting for her

Another refugee of the marketing world, Amanda Salta opened Rooted and Grounded, a flower studio on Union Avenue in Laconia, last year. Then she bought out another flower shop and, “it’s been insane how much things have taken off.”

Salta was a marketer by training who found the corporate world wasn’t for her. In 2022, she got married and decided to arrange the flowers for her wedding. “I absolutely fell in love with it,” she said.

In the same way a bouquet groups different but complementary flowers, Salta has filled her store with several other select gift items that pair well with a bouquet. There are onesies for new parents, craft cocktail mixers and “shower steamers” that turn a hygiene routine into an aromatherapy experience.

Is it a florist with gifts, or a boutique gift shop that also does flowers? Like a bouquet, it isn’t necessary to parse the parts in order to appreciate the whole.

“A lot of people have referred to us as a boutique florist, but we do all the things that a normal florist would do: plants, flowers, gifts, classes, subscriptions, weddings, all the normal things,” Salta said.

For Small Business Saturday, Rooted and Grounded will be tempting shoppers with giveaways and raffles.

Salta said it’s “exciting” to be heading into the holiday season. “A little nerve-wracking, but exciting.”

Take a swing

The area needed another indoor golf facility, Chuck Williams figured, based on how difficult it was to book time in a simulator. Williams, who works in construction during the warmer months, figured he could get such a business up and running this winter.

And so the Tee Box, located in Belknap Marketplace in Belmont — formerly known as the Belknap Mall — was launched.

The Tee Box opened on Columbus Day Weekend, and it has been exceeding Williams’ expectations.

“I have 75 members. I was hoping to hit 100 members in my first year and I’ll easily hit that,” Williams said, noting golfers start to get itchy around the end of November, after golf courses close.

“It starts to get boring around here, you’ve got to find something to do,” Williams said. For people who like to golf, the Tee Box provides just that.

A membership-based business, his customers can use an access code to enter for their reserved tee time. Inside, there are seven golf simulators, which allow golfers to virtually explore thousands of courses by hitting a ball into a screen, which measures the force and angle of the shot and shows how the ball would travel down the course.

Williams said each simulator can handle a party of up to eight golfers — meaning as many as 56 people could be at the Tee Box at one time. He has locker rooms for people who want to store their clubs there, and there’s room to expand by adding an eighth simulator.

Winter will probably be his busiest time, but Williams plans to stay open year-round.

“I think it will get summer play,” he said. “There aren’t many good driving ranges, and people want to be able to practice.”