Pink Friday attracts traffic for holiday shopping

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Charles City welcomed a crowd of new shoppers coming to town for some early holiday shopping at the Pink Friday event on Friday, Nov. 17.

Locally spearheaded by Tiffany Rottinghaus of Cardigan, Pink Friday is a relatively new nationwide shopping event designed to encourage shopping at small businesses ahead of the big Black Friday sales.

This year, more than a dozen Charles City businesses signed up to take part in the event.

“It’s been good,” said Mallory Hoffmann, creative director at Cardigan. “We’ve worked with a lot of existing clients and a lot of new people today.”

Business owners up and down Main Street shared those sentiments, reporting a welcome influx of new faces coming into browse their wares.

While originating as an event for clothing boutiques, shops of all kinds have gotten in on Pink Friday for the last couple years, serving up snacks and wine and offering special deals for the day.

Along with Cardigan, participating businesses were Birdie and Bo’s, Main Street Drug, Saxony, McCoy Smoothies, Aromas, the Charles City Arts Center, The Rustic Corner, TJ’s Service, Prologue Books and Wine, Schiller’s Fine Art & Framing, Otto’s Oasis, Dean Jewelers, Saga Boutique and Darbe & Co.

“It’s been a great day,” said Tami Vetter of Rustic Corner. “We’ve had a lot of new people today, which is awesome.”

“We saw lots of fun people come through,” said Stacey Berger of Saxony.

At Prologue, the event coincided with a visiting author and live music in the evening, bringing in a steady flow of people throughout the day.

“It was a nice little afternoon,” said Prologue’s Darci Tracy.

Following Pink Friday, the shopping season won’t slow down. Main Street’s stores will continue to buckle in as Black Friday and Small Business Saturday approaches, followed by a slew of other local events in the coming weeks.

“It’s a good starting point for the holiday season,” said Hoffmann.