Small Business Saturday promotion includes $1,000 gift basket
In the aftermath of two weekends of snow emergencies, Colony Plaza shop owners, along with small businesses all over the Erie region, are hoping the third time’s the charm.
Santa himself will help at Colony, passing out 50 full-sized Christmas Pulakos chocolate bars, which might seem pretty generous in itself. However, one of the chocolate bars, Willy Wonka-style, will be wrapped with a golden ticket that awards the bearer a gift basket worth more than $1,000 in plaza gifts and goodies.
The basket contains, among other things, gift cards, hair cuts, pottery, art, class passes, collectors’ items and more.
Santa will be giving away the chocolate bars between 1:30 and 4 p.m., as he walks around the plaza. Shoppers will need to keep their eyes out if they want one of the bars.
“We were going to give (the basket) away two weeks ago,” said Lisa Hansen, assistant general manager at PE Real Estate Holdings, which has an office in the plaza. “But there was the snow and then the snow. All of Erie is doing a redo” of Small Business Saturday this weekend, Hansen said.
“The Colony had to cancel its Black Friday and Shop Small Saturday due to ‘Snowmageddon’ last weekend,” said Peter Gesue, of PE Real Estate Holdings. “We rescheduled it for this weekend, and are doing a riff on Willy Wonka where we have purchased 50 Pulakos Christmas chocolate bars and placed a golden ticket in one of them.
“Santa and Mrs. Claus will be passing them out on Saturday to kids and the winning ticket will take home a gift basket with assorted gifts from Colony vendors worth $1,000,” Gesue said.
The city of Erie, which had elaborate plans for Small Business Saturday, including the Miracle on State Street vendor event, will also celebrate local shopping this weekend after two postponements.
Weatherwise, no snow is in the forecast for this weekend. According to the National Weather Service, Saturday will be sunny with a high of 35 degrees and Sunday is expected to be 41 and rainy.
Contact Jennie Geisler atjgeisler@timesnews.com. Find her weekly newsletter athttps://profile.goerie.com/newsletters/erielicious/.
2024-12-13 19:17:33
