SANDUSKY COUNTY, Ohio — Like the Perry Cuomo song says, "There's no place like home for the holidays."
But Sandusky County thinks you should shop near home for the holidays as well.
In it's second year, the Chamber of Commerce of Sandusky County is hosting its Shop Near Home for the Holidays promotion.15 local businesses from Fremont to Bellevue are offering special discounts, ranging from 10 to 50% off, to get more people to support local stores during the holidays.
"It's so important to keep these small businesses afloat, especially with everything we've gone through for the last two years," said Tyler Kneeskern, marketing and events coordinator for the Chamber. "It's more important now than ever keep money here locally, shop local, support small business, and you get to save money while you're doing it."
2020 was the first year for the Shop Near Home for the Holidays initiative, and you needed a physical coupon to get the discounts. But this year they're going digital, and you can find a QR code coupon for every participating business online.
The participating businesses range from established cornerstones to recent additions.
Roots Poultry, operating since 1930, is offering 10% off on not only their own products, but plenty of other local vendors featured in their storefront as well.
CR Juices, founded in 2018, is offering a $5 discount on their newest menu items, broth bowls.
"We just love supporting local, we love people coming in and supporting our shop," said Annette Reed, manager of Roots Poultry. "But we love seeing everybody support everybody locally. Fremont and Sandusky County is what it is because of these local businesses."
CJ Juice owner Christina Rodriguez hopes the promotion leads to success for all businesses in the area.
"It's huge for us," she said. "For one, we're local, we live in this community, we spend our money in this community. We hire high school staff that spend their money also in this community."
And the discounts will continue for another week after Christmas, and ends on Dec. 31st.