Ready, set, shop as Bayou Shopping Days comes to Morgan City

Music, food and shopping await locals and visitors Saturday in Morgan City as the Cajun Coast Visitors & Convention Bureau will be promoting spending money locally as part of its “Bayou Shopping Days.”
The campaign is being held throughout May, and the Cajun Coast Visitors & Convention Bureau will be promoting each city in the parish on the weekends.
“Small business is the heart of a community,” Cajun Coast Visitors & Convention Bureau Executive Director Carrie Stansbury said Wednesday. “It’s important that we support small businesses as it makes our communities stronger. We wanted to play a greater role in this endeavor and invest in our small businesses throughout the parish.”
Saturday is Morgan City’s turn.
“We will have local artists near the Frame Shop,” Stansbury said in a letter to the Morgan City Council last month in a request associated with the event. “Wildflower will do a kick-off to the weekend special. Bay City Bistro will open Saturday with menu items as well as drink specials.”
In addition to food and shopping, Deric Anslem will provide entertainment from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“It should be a really good day,” The Frame Shop owner Deborah Price said. “It looks like the weather’s going to be nice, so (I) hope everyone comes out and enjoys it.”
For the event, Freret Street from First Street to the floodwall will be blocked off so people can sit in lawn chairs for the music as well as the other activities.
Price said she hopes Saturday will provide a major boost for her shop after a year in which many people only did “destination shopping” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event provides an opportunity for visitors to explore area shops and for locals to “rediscover” what is found in these that they were unaware of, Price said.
“We still have so many people in town who don’t know what the local stores have to offer, and not just us, but other local stores,” said Price, whose shop offers other items such as artwork, pottery and jewelry that is all Louisiana made or handmade.