CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Downtown Corpus Christi was mostly a ghost town on a rainy Thanksgiving Day.
Several restaurants like House of Rock, Thai Spice, and Landry's were open, but the majority of businesses remained closed for the holiday.
But with two important shopping holidays on tap for the weekend, one store owner skipped the turkey dinner and spent the day decorating her shop for Christmas.
"We want it to be festive," Commons General Store owner Ceirra Riley said. "We want Black Friday and Small Business Saturday to be fun and beautiful."
Commons is among nine locations that the Downtown Corpus Christi Facebook page says are hosting events on Saturday to coincide with Small Business Saturday.
The money that comes in on that day and on Black Friday can benefit the local economy and boost businesses' bottom lines.
That's why Riley sacrificed what would have been a day off from work to prepare.
"Being ready to make sales is really important, just because people are out and ready to spend the money,” she said.
Riley says Commons is already seeing an uptick in business because of holiday shopping, and now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, she expects lots of foot traffic around her store.
"Downtown Corpus Christi is the best place to start a business," Riley said.
