Kendall County businesses getting ready for Small Business Saturday

If you would prefer your popcorn to have an eggnog or white chocolate peppermint taste this holiday season, The Popcorn Store in Oswego has you covered.

Those are just some of the flavors the gourmet popcorn store offer during the holiday season. The store – which offers more than 60 flavors of popcorn – also sells hot chocolate and dark chocolate sea salt flavored popcorn along with red and green colored popped caramel corn.

“We dye the popcorn red and green and we put some of those into caramel popcorn balls and we call them Christmas ornaments,” said The Popcorn Store owner Todd Kummer.

The Popcorn Store, located at 1690 Douglas Road in the Gerry Centennial Plaza in Oswego, has been open since 2013. Kummer purchased the store in 2017 from the previous owner.

The store will likely see brisk business on Saturday, which is Small Business Saturday. Started by American Express in 2010, Small Business Saturday encourages consumers to do their shopping at local businesses. It is held each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and after Black Friday.

The holiday season is a busy time for the store.

“December is our busiest month,” Kummer said. “We have all of our Christmas tins, Christmas candy, Christmas gift boxes and special flavors popcorn for Christmastime.”

The store pops its own popcorn. The smell of the popcorn carries across the shopping center.

“We try to pop every day,” Kummer said. ‘We’ve had people come in after being in Meijer and said they smelled the popcorn and had to come by. As soon as they smelled it, they found their way over here.”

Kummer and his wife try to support local businesses as much as they can.

“We try to go to the smaller stores to get things, like bakeries,” he said.

He also believes in giving back to the community he serves. The store works with area schools such as Aurora University on fundraising events.

“One of the sororities there was selling popcorn to raise money for a breast cancer fundraiser,” Kummer said.

The Popcorn Store also works with Oswego School District 308′s special education program to help teach students life skills.

“It’s fun to work with them and give kids an opportunity to learn how to work as a team,” he said.

Dave’s Meat Market, located at 1175 N. Bridge St. in Yorkville, is another local business that is busy during the holiday season. The store’s flavorful beef sticks are a popular item to give as a Christmas present.

“Customers will make a nice basket and put all of the beef sticks in there,” said owner Dave Wellehan.

Dave’s Meat Market has been in business for 23 years. He strives to sell high quality meat at reasonable prices.

The store sold more than 200 turkeys for the Thanksgiving holiday. Wellehan had to find another place to get his turkeys from this year after Waterman-based Ho-Ka Turkey Farms recently closed its doors after 90 years in business.

Even if you have never shopped at Dave’s Meat Market, you might have tried some of their products. The store provides meat to such local establishments as Mike & Denise’s Pizzeria & Pub in Yorkville. Mike & Denise’s also operates the Bristol Tap in Bristol.

“I probably have 15 or 16 restaurants that I do,” he said.

Dave’s Meat Market also supplies meat to sports booster organizations in the area at a discount. Like Kummer, he tries to give back to the community as much as he can.

“Anyone who supports me, I’ll try to support them,” Wellehan said.