Sault Ste. Marie downtown merchants kick off holiday shopping season

Sault Ste. Marie -

Sault Ste. Marie’s downtown association will hold a moonlight magic event this week. Businesses will stay open late along with a number of other activities planned to bring shoppers downtown.

Business owners spent Thursday getting their shops ready for late-night shoppers. And the association and city have set up holiday light displays throughout the area.

Melodie Taylor, manager of The Rad Zone, likes the moonlight magic initiative, calling it a good way to get people shopping local.

"So many people preach about shop local, support local -- now is your chance," said Taylor.

"Local businesses are so tenacious. We pull up our boot straps and do what needs to be done. We did curbside, we dealt with the restrictions."

Marnie Stone, owner of Stone's Office Supply, said with capacity restrictions starting to crop again up, it's especially important to support local business this holiday season.

"Many business owners have stocked up this year, especially not really seeing this next wave come, and they've got inventory in their stores and on their websites," Stone said.

"So it's really important to try and keep the local business top of mind."

One big change to moonlight magic is there will be no gathering for the community tree lighting ceremony.

"We're hoping to have a successful event, hoping to have people come out and see the work we've done with the city in setting up some displays for pictures, the late night shopping for our merchants and to just give people something to do for the holiday season," said Salvatore Marchese, Downtown Association executive director.