Bus added for 2nd Shop Small Crawl in New Kensington

A bus has been added for the second Shop Small Crawl in New Kensington to help shoppers get to the 50 businesses that will participate in the event on Small Business Saturday, which is Nov. 26 this year.

The crawl first was held in 2021 to highlight the city’s growing downtown business community.

Small Business Saturday, founded by American Express in 2010 and co-sponsored by the Small Business Administration since 2011, is held the Saturday after Thanksgiving as a counter to Black Friday, which has predominantly focused on larger retailers.

“Shop Small Saturday is a day to celebrate local entrepreneurs and encourages shoppers to buy from small businesses,” said Michelle Thom, an event organizer. “We found it incredibly important to create an event to bring together all of the small businesses here and showcase everything that is available in downtown New Kensington.”

The bus added this year will have six stops along the route, including two in the Parnassus area.

“The added bus service will allow participants to sit back, relax and enjoy a day of shopping, and not worry about driving or parking,” Thom said.

April Platt, general manager of House of 1,000 Beers in Parnassus , said they are “absolutely stoked” to be part of the crawl for the first time. They will be offering a gift card promotion and contributing a gift card and mug to the prizes.

Platt is happy the bus is being included to help people get to Parnassus.

“Oftentimes, we feel forgotten about down here,” she said. “There’s a lot of excitement downtown, which we are very stoked about. Improvement in New Kensington is wonderful for everybody. We really appreciate from the bottom of our hearts the extra effort to keep us included. It means a lot to us.”

Participating businesses will be identified with signs on their windows or doors.

Bus stops also will be marked.

The participating businesses each are contributing to prize packages including gift certificates, T-shirts, memberships and three-course dinners. Many business also will be offering specials or samples.

The event will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Event maps listing participating businesses will be available at Voodoo Brewing New Kensington Pub, 956 Fifth Ave.

Businesses will be placed into zones, and shoppers will need to collect stamps for their maps from a certain number of businesses in each of the zones to be entered to win one of the prize packages, Thom said.

Completed maps will be turned in at Voodoo. Winners will be announced online the next day.

The New Kensington Arts Center, 950 Fifth Ave., will host an art exhibition in its Fifth Avenue gallery during the crawl. It will feature works by Alisher Karimov, Betty Maloney, Chris Watkins, Kellie Potts and Teraysa Enriquez.

Featured vendors and artists will include Cody & Banks, Starlight Studio of Dance, and Charmed Accessories. Local artists will be set up in the Barnes Street workshop selling one-of-a-kind art pieces.