Shops in the Bakersfield Centre celebrated one year of being open with a giveaway to encourage people to keep supporting local businesses.
Country MX Parts and Gifts And Crafts On Ellen have both been open for a year now and ran a promotion to celebrate alongside the other shops in Bakersfield.
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Customers who spent $20 or more in any of the Bakersfield stores went in the running to win a $50 voucher for each shop, with the lucky winner being announced on Thursday, May 12.
Betty Simounds, of Gifts And Crafts On Ellen, and Ashley Iley, of Country MX Parts, cut a cake outside their shops after the winner was drawn.
Ms Simounds said it has been a very interesting year for her and she has noticed a few trends around town.
"We're seeing lots of the elderly people come into the main street, but not the young ones," she said.
She said COVID has definitely had an impact on business by making people flock to online shopping, but there have been upsides too.
"The ups have been being able to be out there, see people, talk to people, and have them know there's somewhere different out there for them to go shopping," she said.
Mr Iley said he was grateful he decided to "bite the bullet" and open his shop when he did.
"It was very daunting, it was a situation like should I even be doing this?" he said.
"But this has been my life, motorbikes is everything I've done really."
Mr Ily said running a business is "not all pretty colours and painting on the wall", but it was still worth it at the end of the day.
He said anyone who has their heart set on opening a business should just go for it provided they have gotten everything they need in place.
"If it all meets in line, do it and don't hold back," he said.
"If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. At least you can say you've tried."
The other two shops in Bakersfield Centre are run by the owners of the building, Den Kennedy and Dianne Wait-Kennedy.
