LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two big shopping days for people. Still, an important one to Little Rock's SoMa district community is Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting the local businesses that call the neighborhood home.
The Green Corner Store has been in SoMa for 14 and a half years, and for most of those years, the store has participated in Small Business Saturday.
"When we started, we were trying to encourage people to tell them how important small businesses are and that a percentage of their dollar gets circulated right back into the community," Green Corner Store owner Shelley Green said.
Green said they see more customers yearly, and recently, more businesses have moved in along SoMa.
"We started when there weren't a lot of businesses and restaurants around," Green said. "Now it's just grown up around us. "I think we've been able to attract a lot of independently owned small businesses that make it different from anywhere else in the city."
While those who call Central Arkansas home can be spotted shopping there and at other stores, you'll also find people from out of town.
"We're visiting our son and granddaughter from Connecticut," Marisa Marconi said.
Whenever Marconi comes to Little Rock, she makes it a point to stop at the store and support locals.
"We love it," Marconi said. "Every time we come, we find something new."
The goal of Small Business Saturday in SoMa is for people to visit all the businesses that have been around for a while, to the newer ones, and not just the shops but the restaurants too, like El Sur, which called their building in the neighborhood home for a year now.
"It's amazing how we have a big diversity of food in the neighborhood," El Sur owner Luis Vasquez said.
Vasquez said it's great being a new addition to the neighborhood and hopes it continues to grow and get support beyond Saturday.
"A walkable space for everybody to come to enjoy and have a good time... enjoy the neighborhood because this is an awesome neighborhood," Vasquez said.