ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A South Wedge business is turning to the community to help keep the lights on. Little Button Craft has sold handmade goods exclusively from local artists for the past eight years. But at the start of 2024, its sales took a nosedive.

“I hate to say ‘It’s the economy’, but I really feel like the economy right now is not supportive of the luxury goods like we sell,” owner Shelby Frizzle said.

Frizzle started at the shop years ago, teaching knitting and crocheting classes. In 2016, she bought it from the former owners and focused on those local artists. She also keeps free classes, run by those creators. Even during the pandemic, Frizzle said business wasn’t this bad. With limited options and dwindling finances, she started a GoFundMe at the beginning of April.

“I took a moment to kind of swallow that pride and embrace the community that loves me and us, and say, ‘Hey, if you do love us so much can you try to help us out?'” Frizzle said. “And we’ve seen a great response from it and it’s been amazing.”

Dozens of donors have pitched in almost $6,500 to help keep the lights on. One of those donors was Christa Penner, the owner of a similar shop in Buffalo called Buffalo Shop Craft.

“Shopping small will help enhance the community that you’re living in cause the money goes back into your community,” Penner said. “So when you’re working with a lot of local [artists] I say you’re kind of doubling that impact, right? Because you’re coming to Shop Craft or Little Button Craft and you’re not only supporting that entity as a whole but you’re supporting each one of those individual small business artists.”

Frizzle is asking for $10,000, which would give her and the team about three months of breathing room to try and revamp their events and business. 

“I could totally order things on Amazon,” Frizzle said. “I could totally go to a big box store, but the fact that I get to support over 250 people within the city it’s a no-brainer for me. Because, if I’m benefitting, they’re benefitting — and not to say that companies don’t need money — but I would like to put money in Rochester artists’ hands.”

That’s a take shared by the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, too. 

 “We always want to promote small local businesses as much as we possibly can,” CEO and President Bob Duffy said. “They’re the ones that – their names are on the back of little league and soccer uniforms and junior hockey. they’re part of the fabric of our community.”

Duffy was clear that there is rarely a quick fix to get a business out of the red, no matter the size. Running a business is very complicated, and all kinds of problem areas can bring a business under. It’s not uncommon for a startup to fail, but in a small city like ours, we feel every closure. 

“We are a New-York-City-based legislature,” Duffy said. “I think they have very different goals and focuses down there, and to me, I always say: When a business closes in New York City, it’s like a tree falling in a forest. When a business closes in Upstate New York, it’s like a tree falling on your house.”