Downtown Sarasota Holiday Shopping Q&A

Patch recently caught up with Downtown Sarasota Alliance Chairman John Harshman to talk about the traditional kick-off to the holiday shopping season—Black Friday plus Small Business Saturday.

Q: What are downtown’s expectations for Black Friday?

A: Everybody’s expecting increased activity. All the merchants are looking for a very good retail season beginning Black Friday; and Black Friday is an odd term for something that’s very positive for the retailers.

Q: What’s the scene like downtown for shopping?

A: Just over the past month we’ve experienced more season visitors coming back into town, which is nice, and it’s good to see old faces we see every six months or so. We have new businesses, too that will enjoy the traffic.

One of the beauties of downtown is that it’s not a mall.  It’s eclectic shopping with very fine fashions and jewelry to everything including hardware and guns.

Q: What about food options after people get tuckered out from all that shopping?

A: We have great restaurants. If they want to get a pick-me-up and stop to get a cup of coffee they can do that, or they can get a full meal.

Q: American Express is promoting Small Business Saturday for people to shop small on Main Street. How do you think that might play out in Sarasota?

A: Businesses I talked to downtown are very busy. They seem to be doing fairly well this season. I known Saturdays are very busy down here—we have the .

It’s a place to see and bee seen as well as a lot of great shopping options. We get a lot of residual shopping because of that.

Q: How’s the parking downtown?

A: There’s a number of different parking options. Having the certainly will help people.

This is a great time of year to park and stroll because the weather is so nice and you have a lot of options and distractions along the way.

We also have the garage, too, that gets used quite a bit. We should have ample parking for everybody. We also have at Orange Avenue, west. 

Q: Anything else you want to add?

A: Downtown is a really beautiful place during the Christmas season. It’s not just aesthetically pleasing, but the energy and vibrancy of downtown that people will appreciate, and I encourage all to come down.