With the holiday shopping season now officially here, St. Joseph Today is urging everyone to head downtown for some great deals.

St. Joe Today’s Daniele Crevier tells us you can get trampled at a big box store, or you can peruse the wares of merchants in downtown St. Joseph while strengthening the community.

“According to a civic economic study in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when someone spends $100 at a local business, approximately $68 of that stays in the local community,” Crevier said. “So it’s just really important to support those community businesses, those local businesses.”

And for Black Friday weekend, there will be plenty of deals in downtown St. Joseph.

“Some of those include, of course, store presents off for sales and different things like that. Forever Books is going to host  a book signing. We’ve gotten the makers events over at Chartreuse. There’s a maker’s market over at the Box Factory. There’s lots of giveaways, special sales, different things like that going on.”

Crevier says St. Joe Today is also holding giveaway drawings each day throughout all of December. Take your receipt from a St. Joe Today member business to the Welcome Center and be entered to win things like gift cards, wine tasting passes, and beach passes.

StJoeToday.com has a list of all the special deals being offered downtown this weekend.