By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
FAIR HAVEN – No one will dispute that it’s easy to shop online. Click a link, add to cart and a few days later, your gifting is finished.
But if you’re longing for the holidays to be less transactional and more about community, consider forgoing the online experience and heading to Fair Haven Nov. 29 for Shop Small Saturday. The day offers more than the opportunity to pick up unique gifts – from books to clothes to toys and more – at local boutiques; it also offers the chance to meet your neighbors, enjoy sips and treats and tool around a small town in a really cool red trolley.
According to Chelsea Delaney, owner of Sadie James clothing boutique and a leading organizer of the event, the borough has been participating in American Express’ Small Business Saturday program for at least a decade (the program was created in 2010 to help small businesses weather the recession).
In order to be sanctioned by American Express, the day has to be centered around an event, and Fair Haven has had success with a “town-wide brunch.” Businesses in the town that participate offer customers an array of sips and bites, like coffee, cocoa, mimosas, cookies, muffins and more.
“I try to really encourage businesses to reach out to local food vendors,” for the food offerings, she said.
For the day to be a success, Delaney said, one of the biggest challenges they face is how to bridge the east and west sides of the borough. And that’s where the trolley comes in. It runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day and stops at about five locations to drop off and pick up shoppers, completing two to three loops an hour.
On the trolley is a guide, a volunteer from the Fair Haven Business Association (FHBA), who acts as a “hospitality creator,” explained Tom Bull, president of the FHBA. The guide also asks riders trivia questions about Fair Haven.
There are currently about 170 businesses in Fair Haven – including those with brick-and-mortar stores and those without – and about 60 are dues-paying members of the association, Bull said.
Those without storefronts – lawyers, plumbers, accountants, insurance agents and the like – can still participate in Shop Small Saturday thanks to the generosity of the Knights of Columbus.
At the Columbus Club, Bull said, businesses and kid entrepreneurs can set up tables. The club also has a bar and a television tuned to The Game – the annual college football rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State – as well as games for kids, like cornhole and pin the tail on Rudolph.
Bull said the day is about pushing the “Main Street” experience.
Bull calls the day “the kickoff” to the holiday shopping season. “Black Friday is really meant for the malls and now Amazon. Shop Small Saturday kind of has its own identity for small towns like ours. So go ahead and do your Amazon stuff. No one’s expecting you to stop buying from Amazon just because you live and work and play in a small town,” he said.
Delaney said the event has changed over the years, as they refine what works and as small businesses come and go but, she said, it’s still one of her favorite events. “It’s all about giving back to the town that supports you.”
The article originally appeared in the November 20 – 27, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
