CHARLOTTE, NC — Black Friday deals are already going on. Before you get all of your holiday shopping done, business owners in western North Carolina are hoping you consider buying from them. Two months after Hurricane Helene changed Western North Carolina forever, Jim Rice is hoping you lend a helping hand to his neighbors by supporting the businesses impacted in the mountains. 4422 Speaker1: the businesses are local. They’re owned by local people. They employ local people and so that’s the lifeblood of the community,” Rice said of the importance of shopping local. Rice owns Turtle Old Man Jewelry. The past two weeks, he has set up shop at the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte. What waits for him at home is a fallen tree through his roof that still needs to be removed. “Compared with the catastrophe so many people have faced up there. Ours is, you know, nothing,” Rice said of his damaged home. It’s business as usual for Rice and his family. However, business for so many in the western part of our state has been far from usual in the last couple of months. Many struggle to keep the lights on. Morganton native Heather Holmes and her PR company, Publicity For Good, are working to push the idea of supporting mountain businesses now more than ever. She says Facebook groups are a great way to find a local business. “My favorite thing to do is I’ll say, hey, I’m wanting to buy this. Who do you know that makes this product?” explained Holmes. As more businesses reopen after Helene, Holmes recommends taking the family up to a mountain town to get into the holiday spirit and put a dent in the holiday shopping. If you can’t, you can always find them online. “Getting access to businesses that are local has never been easier, and the need for us to support local businesses has honestly never been greater,” Holmes said.