Black-Owned Retail Businesses Look to Build on Holiday Season Momentu…

Owning a small business comes with its challenges. 

But the holiday shopping season can be a welcome gift for many Chicago small business owners. 

There was some good news this year. According to Mastercard Spending Pulse, retail shopping was up about 3% this holiday season compared to last year. 

Nika Vaughan is the founder of Plant Salon, a shop offering plants and self care products with locations in West Town and Bucktown. She said the store received an uptick of holiday traffic.

“We had a lot of folks that are focused on gifts,” Vaughan said. “So they totally appreciated self care, and they wanted to share it.”

This comes despite concerns over rising costs for essential goods, lowering consumers’ ability to spend money on gifts or non-essential goods.

“Gift cards was huge for us,” Vaughan said. “I think people that were like, wanting to support small business and thinking like ‘I don’t even have time to go by the candle, by the small house plant,’ but I’m…