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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Mayor George Brown cut the ribbon and officially ushered in the 2020 Downtown Wilkes-Barre Holiday Pop-Up Shops on Public Square on Saturday morning.
				Scattered across the Square were a series of small kiosks, each housing a local small business for the next two weeks with the idea of giving shoppers a safe place to shop for the holidays, while also providing a boost to some of the area&rsquo;s small businesses.
				&ldquo;Small businesses are the lifeblood of this city,&rdquo; Brown said after cutting the ribbon. &ldquo;With the pandemic, some of them may be in danger of shutting down &mdash; we can&rsquo;t let that happen.&rdquo;
				Brown was joined by a host of local leaders and officials in making this new-look Holiday Pop-Up Shop happen, including vice president and COO of the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce Lindsay Griffin, and Diamond City Partnership Executive Director Larry Newman.
				&ldquo;Typically we do our pop-up shops out of a vacant storefront here in the city, but with the pandemic and safety in mind, we&rsquo;ve shifted to an open-air marketplace this year,&rdquo; Newman said. &ldquo;The holiday season is so important for our local businesses, especially this year.&rdquo;
				The shops were spread out across the Square to prevent a build-up of people, and masks were required at all times.
				A variety of different businesses were represented on Saturday, including some businesses that have been operating for years, and some, like 3Buds, who just opened up their Wyoming location last week.
				&ldquo;A local farm had some hemp and didn&rsquo;t know what to do with it, so we took it off their hands,&rdquo; said Hunter Smetana, who was representing 3 Buds along with Dominic Grandinetti on Saturday.
				The new shop is located on Wyoming Avenue, and Smetana acknowledged the challenges they faced in trying to open up a new store in the midst of a pandemic.
				&ldquo;We had to go and get a waiver from the state just to open,&rdquo; Smetana said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re here now, and we&rsquo;re open for business.&rdquo;
				Other businesses on the Square included Kaki Intimates, League SVn and Pittston Popcorn, with Stephen Kolbeck quick to credit his wife as the driving force behind the business.
				&ldquo;It was my wife&rsquo;s idea; she got all this organized,&rdquo; Kolbeck said. &ldquo;I was just more than happy to jump on board.&rdquo;
				Kolbeck said that the pandemic had hit their business mainly in that they were unable to go to many of the local festivals and vendor fairs, a sentiment echoed by most of the pop-up shop owners, and by Newman, as well.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen that most of our local businesses have their sales decrease by half this year,&rdquo; Newman said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why it was so important to put this together, to support small businesses and helping them reach new customers.&rdquo;

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Shopping on the Square