As I recently shared, what makes our Alexandria small business community so great is how we support one another.

There is one particular group in our city who I can always count on to support our events, and that is the real estate community. I have a list of realtors on speed dial when we need help sponsoring an event. I mean let’s be honest: if we didn’t have their support I don’t know how anything in this town would happen. They devote a massive portion of their marketing dollars to things that help other people and make Alexandria livable. Every charity and sporting event happens because of a local realtor. The list of my realtor friends is too long to list, but when it comes to the retail community Kristen Jones, The Patterson Group and Lauren Bishop are always there to contribute!

When Visit Alexandria, our local tourism promotion agency, stepped away from sponsoring Plaid Friday, we all went into a little bit of panic mode. We were back at square one with the stores organizing it, as we did when it started years ago, and needed a sponsor right away. I swear within minutes of a meeting I had with some other shopkeepers, Lauren Bishop said, “Yes.”

Lauren is a great friend of all of our stores and the small business community. She is also a close friend and I’m happy to share (since she always looks perfectly put together) that she’s a very good customer of The Hive.

I thought it would be fun for Lauren to share with us some of her top picks for holiday shopping. We are grateful to have her sponsor Plaid Friday so thought we should find out what she would be purchasing for herself and those on her holiday list. Check it out:

We hope to see you all out and about this Plaid Friday!

SEE ALSO:  Plaid Friday: A Day After Thanksgiving Event Like No Other!