PAYSON, Utah — A Payson cafe is urging the community to show up for local small businesses this holiday season after the Chamber of Commerce rebranded an annual Small Business Saturday event into the Payson Christmas Festival.
The Center of the Universe Cafe, which has been open just over a year in downtown Payson, created a social media video calling on community support as co-owner Garrett Sherwood says this time of year is critical for small businesses.
"Things are hard for a lot of people," Sherwood said. "It's really hard basically, since COVID to get people to come out to stuff. People are not coming out as much."
The cafe's social media video highlights the importance of shopping local, explaining that when customers buy from local businesses, they're helping neighbors pay rent and supporting the community. “There’s some concern that on that specific day it’s going to be less of a good day for local businesses down here than it would have been if outside vendors weren’t being brought in," Sherwood said.
However, the Payson Santaquin Area Chamber of Commerce says the goal of supporting local small businesses hasn't changed with the event rebrand. They said they simply want to draw more people in.
"The whole idea of bringing outside vendors is not so much to support outside vendors, it's to bring the crowds to our downtown to support our local vendors," Jim Rowland, president and CEO of the chamber, said.
Trish Gorman, Dean of Salt Lake Community College's Gail Miller Business School, says the pressure from inflation to supply costs to tariffs is real. "A lot of businesses are struggling right now," Gorman said. "But they're also getting really creative."
She's seeing small businesses trying to adapt to changes by adjusting what they offer and sourcing materials differently.
"Because of tariffs, because of changes, cost increases, you're going to have a smaller number of flavors you're going to offer, but they're going to be the most popular flavors that no one else can offer," Gorman explained. "We've seen people change where they source their materials and decide to do their manufacturing in the U.S. instead."
Sherwood hopes the message behind their video stays front and center during the holiday season. "Shopping local and supporting small local businesses is still important regardless of what we call this event," Sherwood said. "We hope to be here for a long, long time."
