FARMINGTON — Local businesses drew shoppers downtown for Cider Monday with offers and promotions to rival online buying on Cyber Monday.

Monday morning was fruitful as more customers than normal browsed Maine-made products and crafts and enjoyed hot apple cider while looking for deals.

“A lot of people are really engaged in shopping locally,” Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney Doak and Garrett Booksellers, said at noontime Monday. He said business was good on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, as well.

“I’m happy with it,” Janice Maxham of Sugarwood Gallery said of shopping at stores where customers can “touch and feel” items instead of viewing them on a computer screen.

A lot of people come in once a year during the Thanksgiving day weekend, she said, and many shopped locally. One woman came home from Connecticut and bought Christmas gifts for all her office staff, Maxham said. She likes giving them Maine-made products and could give three items for the amount she planned to spend on each one.

Friday and Saturday were great, Brechner said. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills read “The Book With No Pictures” at the store, he said.

Author BJ Novak, who acted on the television show “The Office,” will hold a contest for the best video of someone reading the book, he said. If the local video wins, the prize goes to help local schools.

Brechner was also busy making final preparations for Saturday’s book launching of “Earmuffs for Everyone” when author-illustrator Meghan McCarthy rides on the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce float in the Chester Greenwood Day parade and sign copies of her new book at the bookstore afterward.

Other participants in Cider Monday included Mainestone Jewelry, Richard’s Florist, The Calico Patch, Everyday Music, County Seat Realty, Up Front and Pleasant and soon-to-open Enchanted Herbs & Botanicals.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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