Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

community

Chamber of Commerce urging residents to support local businesses while holiday shopping

Nov 28, 2020 | 10:44 AM

The Grande Prairie Chamber of Commerce is urging residents to shop local this holiday season.

Small businesses in Grande Prairie and across Alberta have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially because of the government restrictions implemented back in March.

“We always want to support our small- and medium-sized businesses locally. To say this year has been hard on our small- and medium-sized businesses would be a bit of an understatement,” explained Larry Gibson, the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Grande Prairie & District Chambers of Commerce.

“We want to encourage everyone out there to continue to, and maybe to emphasis even more this year, to shop local.”

Gibson adds that businesses have had to work hard to get people back into their stores.

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“Our businesses have had to re-invent themselves and come up with new ways to either be online or just to get their advertising out there to let people know of the deals they have. We just want ask that our consumers do the same thing and be innovative.”

The Chamber of Commerce has an entire directory posted on their website of small- and medium-sized businesses that you can support this holiday season.

Gibson says that there is also the Get in the Loop app which showcases businesses around the region.

On November 27, new restrictions were implemented by the Alberta government, limiting the amount of people inside a facility to 25 per cent.

Gibson tells EverythingGP that he’s happy that these businesses can remain open during the busy time of the year.

“The few businesses that we have talked to are pleased that it went the way it did, with at least keeping their doors open.

“A full down lockdown would’ve been catastrophic for local businesses. They have all their protocols in place for prior restrictions that were put in. Being able to keep their doors open and having that 25 per cent fire code I think it a relief for them.”