Downtown Minot businesses see uptick in sales over holiday weekend

MINOT, N.D. – The pandemic has now spilled over into the holidays.

Businesses in downtown Minot kicked off the holiday shopping season with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

After a year of transitioning to online sales, downtown businesses in Minot said Cyber Monday is the end to a successful start of the holiday shopping season.

Mainstream Boutique co-owner Kristie Schwan said that after a successful Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, they are continuing to reach out online.

“We’ve just been doing our daily posts and customers have been coming in,” said Schwan.

Schwan said that along with the boutique’s franchise offering Cyber Monday deals, she’s also working towards allowing purchasing through social media.

“People do comment, on our posts that we do on social media, and then we do branch off and private message them and we do take care of shipping and we do have customers that follow us from South Carolina, Wisconsin, Wyoming,” said Schwan.

Staff at other downtown businesses like Main Street books said that Small Business Saturday still reigns as their busiest day of the year.

“We hit our goals for both days actually so I was very pleased considering we’re trying to shop and do business during a pandemic,” said Main Street Books Owner Val Stadick.

Stadick said they have been encouraging online shopping for those who need it since the start of the pandemic.

“We do have an online presence and of course we’ve had the best online sales we’ve ever had the past seven months,” said Stadick.

Stadick said the month of December is the best month for her store and said she expects to see normal numbers even after making adjustments for COVID.

Businesses said they will continue to encourage safe shopping in store and online through the holiday season.