It’s sale central in Little Silver later this week. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Noticing her neighbors in Fair Haven and Red Bank were finding success with bargain-based weekends, Lori Saybolt decided it was time for business and home owners in Little Silver to unify and get in on the action.
“Other towns have done it and I thought it’d be a great thing to model,” said Saybolt, who helps run the non-profit gift shop The Woman’s Exchange on Church Street and is president of the borough’s business association. “It just creates a much more of a community experience, so we’re hoping to see a lot more people coming into town.”
Rather than having the usual sidewalk and yard sales scattered on the calendar, Saybolt went to work pulling them all together for what’s to be the first borough-wide sale, a three-day affair chock full of deals and one ‘Done Good‘ cause.The event gets started Thursday morning with a downtown sidewalk sale.
While shoppers are taking advantage of specials, the Skin & Bones Day Spa, also on Church Street, will hold a bone marrow donor drive in memory of the late Bob Brummer, an Oceanport business owner and Little Silver resident who died of Leukemia in May. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The sale continues Friday and Saturday and includes all downtown businesses, even ones without brick-and-mortar spaces, Saybolt said.
“Anybody without a storefront is welcome to come and bring pamphlets or talk about their businesses,” she said. “That’s what we do in the business association, is we try to help each other out.”
On Saturday only, the borough will hold a townwide yard sale. Registration permits are $5 and can be obtained at borough hall.
The combined sales will be a gauge for future events in town, Saybolt said. Since the business association was started three years ago, it had held random sidewalk sales while residents put together their own rummage days throughout the year. This, she said, may be the first of many collaborative efforts to come.
“We’re hoping whatever it is, it will be successful and then it’ll grow from there,” Saybolt said.
