West Des Moines’ Historic Valley Junction Buzzes During Small Business Saturday

Tyler Frye and Rahmana Schooler strolled along Valley Junction’s Fifth Street during what is hoped to be one of the biggest shopping days for small businesses across the country: Small Business Saturday.

Frye and Schooler, both 21, traveled from Chariton and Carlisle, respectively, after seeing television reports about the national effort pushed by American Express to support small businesses.

“It’s a good thing to do. There are not very many small businesses around anymore,” Frye said. “It’s nice to come down to where they’re all at and help them out.”

Small businesses in Valley Junction hoped to rack up sales during the second annual Small Business Saturday. The event comes on the heels of massive spending on Black Friday, which benefited malls and large retailers and officially kicked off the holiday shopping season.  

“Black Friday is huge for big retailers, but it does kind of push small business owners like us to side,” said Jesus Ojeda, owner of El Chisme Taqueria & Pizzeria in Valley Junction. “Small Business Saturday is a wonderful idea, and if it helps small businesses like us, then that would be great.”

Some Valley Junction businesses offered discounts and opened early to accommodate bargain-hunters. Saturday is a higher-than-normal-traffic day for the shopping district, and several business owners cited more traffic than usual.  

Shoppers meander along Fifth Street

Few parking spots existed along Fifth Street by midday. Dozens of people darted in and out of shops as a steady stream of motorists inched down the street looking for a place to pull in.

Frye and Schooler parked at the south end of the shopping district at 10:30 a.m. They spent hours walking the length of the street. They ate sandwiches and tenderloins at , bought Frye’s sister a Christmas gift and purchased fudge for Schooler’s mom.

“We wanted to just mosey around,” said Schooler. “I really like the antique places.”

The jaunt helped the pair check a few items off their Christmas lists, but they didn’t part with a lot of cash.

“We’re just kind of getting ideas,” Schooler said.

Businesses cater to shoppers

Valley Junction is home to about 150 small businesses.

“Right now people are really out because of Small Business Saturday,” said Shawn Zeller, part-owner of Memory Lane Antique Store.

Peggy Perkins, a manager for 20 years at, opened the shop at 10:30 a.m. She said the small business initiative is a great idea.  

“There have been quite a few people through,” said Perkins, who sold jewelry, books and other unique items.

Other shops saw similar traffic.

The traffic has been “totally steady,” said Carol Roach, who has worked part time at Mainstream Boutique for eight years.

Memory Lane offered customers a discount of 20 percent. Owners Glen and Shawn Zeller, and Glen Zeller’s mother, Julie Zeller, rang up sales and noticed twice as many customers as usual.

Several shoppers mentioned Small Business Saturday.

“Several customers cited it as a reason for coming in today, which I thought was wonderful,” said Glen Zeller. “It does seem to be an excellent day. I don’t know if I can attribute all of it to that, but it’s certainly, certainly helpful.”

Ojeda, the owner of El Chisme, said traffic at the restaurant began to pick up during the afternoon.

“We haven’t seen too much of a dramatically bigger clientele than we normally do on Saturday,” he said.

So will special shopping events like Small Business Saturday help shoppers part with more cash than usual?

“It’s too early to tell,” Perkins, of A OK Antiques, said.

But, she and small business owners in Valley Junction hope for fuller coffers when the tallying is done.