Holiday shopping kicks off with Pink Friday in Charles City

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Shoppers got a head start on the holiday shopping season during the Pink Friday event on Friday, Nov. 22.

Local businesses joined together to coordinate the event, encouraging people to checkout downtown shopping options.

“It’s been great,” said Tiffany Rottinghaus, who organized the event with other downtown businesses for the third year running. “We’ve had lots of people in and out.”

A dozen small businesses participated in the event, each offering up sales and snacks as people came through to shop and browse.

Along with Cardigan and Mara, owned by Rottinghaus, the event included Schiller Fine Art, Saxony, Darbe & Co, Main Street Drugs, Birdie and Bo’s, Prologue Books and Wine, Charles City Electronics, the Charles City Arts Center, the Rustic Corner and Otto’s Oasis. Aided by mild weather, the event saw a strong turnout of shoppers roaming downtown Charles City.

“It’s been steady and nice all day,” said Darci Tracey of Prologue Books and Wine. “It’s been a good day.”

To encourage people to visit every participating location, inflatable nutcrackers were distributed to each store for shoppers to track down. Finding the nutcracker gets shoppers a stamp on their Pink Friday Passport, which could be filled out and turned in at Cardigan for a gift basket drawing.

The nutcracker hunt was successful in getting people through the doors as local businesses reported steady groups of people coming in throughout the day.

“It’s been busy as all get out,” said Tami Vetter of the Rustic Corner.

Whether people shopped or not, the event served well as a way to showcase what downtown businesses have to offer, with many reporting that they saw many new faces and enjoyed catching up with customers that hadn’t been in for a while.

“We’ve been very pleased,” said Rhonda Dana of Darbe and Co. Boutique. “It hasn’t been a huge mob so you can visit with people.”

“Tiffany did a great job,” said Julie Bock of Charles City Electronics.

For those that didn’t get their passport stamped at every location, there is still time to finish off the card. Holiday shoppers have until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30, to get their cards stamped and turned into Cardigan before the drawing takes place.

“Even if they don’t want to shop today, they can do this all week,” said Rottinghaus.