Bremerton’s small shops hope that the movement to ‘shop small’ rather than at corporate chains will boost the local economy.

Bremerton shop owners hope to rebalance sales this holiday season. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday making up the biggest shopping weekend of the year, many mom and pop stores have been sidelined from shopping action.

Black Friday weekend numbers are significant deciders of business figures at the close of the fiscal year.

“This time of year, retailers are either making it or breaking it with the numbers they pull in over the weekend,” said Elaine Jones, business advisor for the Washington State University Small Business Development Center.

This year independent shop owners in Bremerton are joining forces for Small Business Saturday on Nov. 26. They hope that people will be more conscious with the way that they spend money, keeping money in the community rather than shipping it overseas.

“If you spend one dollar in a small shop, 44 cents of it stays within the community. Compare that to spending one dollar at a box store where about seven cents stays and the rest goes who knows where. So you’re giving your neighbor a job by shopping here,” said Amy Jablonski, owner of Amy’s Decadent Chocolates in Bremerton.