Stores in Belmont are welcoming customers shopping on Small Business Saturday.

Rita Williams and her husband came down to Arthur Avenue from Eastchester to support local shops for Small Business Saturday.

"It's so important, especially this year," Williams says.

Teitel Brothers store owner Gil Teitel says he is proud his family has kept the shop open for more than a century.

However, all of the area's mom-and-pops are feeling the pain of the pandemic, including third generation owner of Addeo and Sons Bakery Laurence Addeo.

"Thanksgiving is one of our biggest holidays and it was just a fraction of what it could have been," Addeo says.

Stores are also taking necessary precautions to keep customers safe by limiting customers inside and requiring masks.

Still, the wholesale losses have been even greater with so many restaurants shut down for months.

With reports that half of the city's small businesses can't pay rent and one-third may close by next year, the mayor has proposed several stimulus plans.

Madonia Bakery owner and chairman of the Belmont Business Improvement District Peter Madonia says another shut down, especially during the busy holiday season, would be catastrophic.

"To lose that for any reason, including a shut down, would be devastating. That would be game over," he says.