MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Throughout Thursday afternoon, downtown Marquette offered a wide variety of opportunities for women in the area for Ladies Night Out.
This year, 77 businesses offered store-wide promotions on clothing, food, beverages, and raffle drawings from noon until 8:00 p.m.
“This is an incentive and an economic push for our downtown, to both kick off the holiday shopping, and just get people downtown before the season slows down,” said Michael Bradford, business outreach and promotions director for the Marquette DDA.
Deals varied business by business, with some being offered all day.
“We started right when we opened at 7:00, 20% off candy and merchandise all day” said Izzy McCabe, a store manager at Donckers and Evergreen Market. “I think what’s really special about today is that it brings so many people downtown, showing what each store has to offer.”
Ladies were invited to visit one of four kiosks around town to receive their passport brochures. For each participating store visited, a hole-punch was made on their passport. After ten were collected, they could enter for one of eight locally donated gift baskets.
Shoppers said the fun came from spending their time with others.
“It’s just girl time,” said shoppers Mary Lynch and Teal Krecioch.
“It’s just something fun to do with my friend, we’ve stopped at about five shops so far,” said Kota Steede. “It’s good to get out and walk, there’s a lot of good deals and snacks, awesome stuff.”
All proceeds from passport sign-ups go directly to the Marquette County Women’s Center, offering advocacy and counseling for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.
