{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-encourages-oregonians-to-support-small-businesses-over-holiday-weekend-", "Merkley Encourages Oregonians to Support Small Businesses over Holiday Weekend", "2014-11-25", "2014", "2014-11", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Merkley Encourages Oregonians to Support Small Businesses over Holiday Weekend  \n\t\n\t\t Senator visits small businesses and highlights local shopping campaign Little Boxes \n\t\n\t\n\tTuesday, November 25, 2014\n\t\n\tPortland, OR \u2013 Oregon\u2019s Senator Merkley helped kick off the holiday shopping season today when he visited small businesses in Northwest Portland today to encourage Oregonians to support small business during the holiday season. Senator Merkley also highlighted a local small business campaign called Little Boxes that encourages Oregonians to shop Portland\u2019s small businesses to earn discounts and win prizes.\r\n \r\n\u201cTaking the time to shop locally during the holidays is a simple step to help our small businesses thrive,\u201d said Senator Merkley. \u201cSmall businesses are key to our economic success, and I encourage everyone to spend Thanksgiving celebrating family and friends and then take some time during the weekend to explore and shop Oregon\u2019s small businesses.\u201d\r\n \r\nDuring today\u2019s event Senator Merkley visited four small businesses that are part of the Little Boxes campaign.\u00a0 Senator Merkley was joined today by Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish and co-founder of Little Boxes, Will Cervarich. Little Boxes is a city-wide shopping event and prize raffle on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. For the two days after Thanksgiving, Little Boxes encourages shoppers to discover the quality and variety of Portland\u2019s local retail shopping scene.\r\n \r\n\u201cLittle Boxes is a uniquely Portland event-- and has quickly become an annual celebration of local small business,\u201d said Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. \u201cNeighborhood small businesses are the backbone of our local economy. They employ half of Portland\u2019s workforce, and for every dollar we spend at a local small business, almost 70 cents stays in the local economy.\u201d\r\n\u201cWe started Little Boxes to amplify the profile of Portland\u2019s independently owned, specialty retailers during the kick off to the holiday shopping season,\u201d said Will Cervarich,\u00a0co-founder of Little Boxes and co-owner of betsy & iya. \"It can be difficult to compete in the noisy world of holiday marketing, so we founded Little Boxes to pool the resources of what\u2019s now become 215 shops citywide to create a fun way to experience Portland's vibrant\u00a0local shopping scene on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.\u201d\r\n \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n     \n\t\n \n\t\n    \n    \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t  \n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n      \n    \n    \n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t  \n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-encourages-oregonians-to-support-small-businesses-over-holiday-weekend-"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8817019406706095, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}