The Saturday after Thanksgiving, also known as Small Business Saturday, may be a construct to encourage continued shopping, but, according to area business owners, shopping local is essential to their survival.
New store gives nod to history
SOUTHWEST HARBOR After coming back to Mount Desert Island every summer for 30 years, Nancy Critchett is ready to plant roots by opening a store with her mother and sister.
“It was the culmination of a perfect storm of events,” said Critchett, explaining how her sister, Debi Estep, decided to move back to Maine from California and her mother, Joan Jones, said goodbye to the last of her beloved miniature horses in Mount Desert at the end of last year.
On May 1, the three ladies will open their store, Tom Cat Tide, at 16 Clark Point Road, and are giving gifts to their first 50 customers as a token of their appreciation. While each of the women has contributed their own art and crafts to the inventory, most of the items within the store won’t be found anywhere else on MDI.