After a few hard years, Uptown merchants say holiday season is a must-win

Last year, the UPS store in Uptown had a crummy holiday season as road construction blocked people’s access.

This year, owner Judy Longbottom is hoping people will come back to mail their Santa presents at her Hennepin Avenue store.

Longbottom is banding with 40 other merchants to put some extra marketing power into Small Business Saturday this weekend to up their chances and recoup the losses from the past few years.

Small shops tend to claim the Saturday after Thanksgiving as theirs after an American Express campaign named the day in 2010.

Since then, the promotions have resulted in $210 billion in sales nationwide. This year, the effort is expected to produce $17 billion in sales.

Retailers know they have to stand out this year, as consumers continue to be wary of spending. Corporate layoffs this fall and the government shutdown did nothing to lift worries, and most surveys have spending at flat or declining a bit for the holiday season.

So, Saturday in Uptown will include a Winter Wonderland Holiday Market at the Seven Points shopping center and the kickoff of a holiday shopping contest. Stores also have decorated for the season and launched gift card campaigns.

“It’s definitely still a really big challenge,” so the holidays offer a refuge and a gathering of businesses determined to improve the area, said Uptown Association President Angela Corbin, who runs the Flower Bar florist shop on Lyndale Avenue. “We are extremely hopeful. Positive. Positive. Positive is the only agenda we are on now.”

Longbottom said she believes her UPS sales could leap 40% to 50% from this time last year. Local shopkeepers are already flocking to her store to mail supplies and other packages and to print holiday signs in anticipation of a better season.

Her sales jumped 38% in the first three weeks of November, after construction finished. To diversify her revenue and give shoppers more reasons to drop by, she bought a $40,000 yard sign printer and introduced new Instagram holiday ads.

The holiday season is the most important for merchants. Longbottom said the 10 weeks between Thanksgiving and Jan. 10 can generate 25% of annual revenue at her two franchise UPS Stores, which together employ 15 and deliver $2 million in sales.

While she’s excited about the holidays, she laments that just as construction wrapped in Uptown, more started right near her Edina store, creating a new uncertainty there for this season.

Last year, Small Business Saturday drove $22 billion in spending nationwide, making it a critical economic engine, Minnesota SBA Director Brian McDonald said.

In St. Paul, the European Christmas Market at Union Station will be open on Saturday, as will the Palace Theatre’s Holiday Market. The Grand Avenue Business Association will again host its mile-long “Grand Meander” on Saturday, Dec. 6.

The businesses along the major corridor for merchants were getting ready last week. Golden Fig Fine Foods owner Lauri Crowell picked up the 200 pounds of chestnuts she’ll roast next week for Grand Meanderers stopping to buy her gourmet shop.

So far this year, sales are flat, but she’s optimistic about the holiday season will be better.

“I think we did more last December than we did the first five years combined that we were in business,” said Crowell, who opened the shop 19 years ago.

“Right now, we’re off to the races until Christmas Eve,” she said.

The Lake Street Council also is sponsoring a contest to help drive customers to the Midtown Global Market, Mercado Central, Ingebretsen’s Scandinavian Gifts and other shops around Lake Street.

“Our small businesses are the secret sauce that have made Minneapolis an economic powerhouse,” Mayor Jacob Frey said. “All of us can do more not just to support them this weekend but to keep them in the spotlight long past Saturday.”

Jamie Schwesnedl, who with his wife, Angela, co-owns Moon Palace Books near Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue, expects Saturday to be busy.

“It’s hard to say how much [business] we’ll see when the holidays are over from where we were a year ago, but we’re hoping that we’ll be up,” he said.

“Just the whole month of December, from Small Business Saturday until New Year’s, is [usually] just so busy that we tend to not really do many events, because we’re just trying to keep up with the sales, getting in all the books that we can, and getting them on the shelves,” he said.

Moon Palace, though, will host two craft fairs in its backroom during the holidays.

Restaurants also are hoping for an increase in holiday shoppers, who often decide to eat out and to make a full day of Black Friday or Small Business Saturday.

After a mostly sluggish 2025, Pizza Luce’s nine pie shops are starting to see some holiday business.

“I had zero reservations at this time last year, but I have five bookings right now for large groups,” said Emily Hoppenjan, general manager at Pizza Luce on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. “We’re doing better this year as far as people dining out.”