Local retailers fared well over the busy week of Thanksgiving and traditional holiday shopping weekend as visitors and residents strolled around town.

Ariel Johnston, who co-owns the Summit County stores Everything Colorado, Frisco Trading Post and Copper Mountain Mercantile, said the Copper store was a hit over the weekend.

“Copper on Friday, (Nov. 26) — actually, which is technically Black Friday — was … one of our busiest days we’ve ever had, especially in preseason,” Johnston said. “It was great this weekend. We felt like there were a lot of people in town.”

Despite being busy, Johnston said the business didn’t feel overwhelming, and she added that the stores have been lucky to hold onto staff amid nationwide labor shortages. Now that many people have flexible schedules with remote work options, Johnston said she thinks visitors opted to come to town for the full week, spending their money at local businesses.

Jan Shackelford, owner of Frisco’s The Juniper Tree, noticed a lot of families with young children looking for things to do and strolling Main Street in Frisco. She said it was noticeably busier than it had been in previous weeks.

“It’s nice to see some vitality in town,” Shackelford said. “I had a lot of locals (come in) that are just loyal, and I had people coming up from the Front Range, groups of women who would prefer to shop small business as opposed to the mall.”

A lot of second-home owners in the area also came out to shop over the past week, Shackelford said. Due to distribution and shipping issues, Shackelford said a lot of her merchandise didn’t arrive in time for the holiday weekend, so she didn’t have much on sale other than some holiday decor, such as throw pillows.

“Certainly, this was better than last year,” Shackelford said. “Last year with COVID — I was closed for 100 days last year, and I was happy to see anybody in November. But I think because the weather was warm and dry, more people were shopping as a form of entertainment.”

Shackelford noted that many shoppers voluntarily wore masks and told her they were vaccinated.

Over in Breckenridge’s Main Street Station, Alyssa Pullekines’ boutique, Folcland, experienced its first Thanksgiving holiday since opening in December 2020.

“I noticed a nice influx of people probably the Saturday (Nov. 20) or Sunday (Nov. 21) prior to last weekend,” Pullekines said. “And really, traffic picked up a lot on Tuesday (Nov. 23) and Wednesday (Nov. 24), and Friday was probably our busiest day of the weekend.”

Pullekines said she noticed there were a lot more people interested in shopping and spending than she had seen in past weeks, which led to good conversion rates for her store. She added that the shoppers were a mix of familiar faces, as well as newcomers, and she echoed Shackelford’s observation that many shoppers were second-home owners.

In traditional Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday fashion, Pullekines decided to offer customers 20% off over the course of five days.

“It was just a really successful weekend for us,” Pullekines said. “We’re happy to see that happen, and it seemed like town was busy, which is great.”