OREGON, USA — Although Black Friday is over, for some, the shopping is just getting started.
“We’re older, we don’t do crowds, and in addition, Black Friday isn’t what it used to be," said Sharon Lubitow, who was out shopping at Portland International Airport (PDX) with her husband.
Shops and restaurants pre-security were open to travelers and people just stopping by to shop.
Plus, on Saturdays through Dec. 28, called "Holiday Saturdays," shoppers will be able to stop by and receive a parking voucher good for two hours, as long as they spend $25 at those stores.
Some of these locations include Country Cat, Hello From Portland, Orox Leather, Portland Coffee Roasters and more.
“When we saw that they were going to have the PDX area open to regular shopping, we thought that would be a good way to check it out and kill two birds with one stone: get to see the new airport and shop," said Bruce Lubitow.
“We always try to get out and support small businesses on this day. We do all the time anyway; local small businesses are important to us, but on this day, we try to really get out and support," said Sharon.
Shoppers also stopped by the Vancouver Mall, where they could shop small and local stores and pop-ups, in addition to the typical big chains.
“I like to do the small businesses and locals and stuff like that," said Max Wagner, who was shopping at the mall for Small Business Saturday, but also did not go Black Friday shopping.
He brought his kids to see Santa and was buying ornaments with one of his daughters.
“We ended up getting some ornaments here form the local shop and getting all the names put on them so that the kids will have various memorability for next year and years coming," said Max Wagner.
There was also shopping fun to be had in Beaverton at the Pacific Islander Christmas Market.
Leialoha Kaula, is the executive director of Ka ‘Aha Lahui O ‘Olekona, better known as KALO.
“As a Hawaiian organization, we wanted to create a Pacific Islander space for our local small business owners to be able to give them a pathway to share what we’re doing, share our culture," she said.
Vendors selling all kinds of items were present, with them all either being Pacific Islander-owned, from Hawaii or at least with ties to Hawaii.
They also gave away free food bags to make homemade sweet potato pies and also gave away feminine hygiene and hygiene bags to the community.
“You often see us at programs like Asian Pacific Islander month or celebrating those, and a lot of times those events tend to overshadow the Pacific Islander community," Kaula said.
“We’re trying to really create accessibility here, here in Oregon, and also highlight that we’re here in Oregon and that we have opportunities for our communities to come and shop and support small business owners," she continued.