Running a business right now is no picnic. Times are tough and you have to be extra careful with the way money gets spent. There has to be some form of advertising. It is really smart to figure out some plans of advertising that will get a nice amount of attention without costing too much.
Now certainly if you want you can invest in more costly forms of advertising like television commercials, radio spots and such, this is always an option. If this is where you are choosing to invest your advertising funds, just keep in mind that the investment on these forms of advertising is far greater than the returns and that there are much lesser forms of advertising that offer an incredible advertising value.
Instead of going big budget and complicated, try to make things more simple. There are many small things that you can do instead. Some places will give away stuff after you spend a certain amount in their store. Some businesses will regularly send out coupons attached to flyers. These can be put on cars in nearby parking lots or hooked on door knobs in close neighborhoods.
It could be very helpful to check around for spots where people hang up fliers and posters. Grocery stores will sometimes have a board set up for this type of thing. Libraries will usually have a place for you to do this too. If there is a community college or a university they have multiple spots for anyone to hand up posters and fliers normally.
There are really so many different choices of advertising that you can do on a grass roots level. The trick is to get as many people as possible to see your business name as many times as you can. You can do this by using promotional products for giveaways in the community. These can be given to customers as they shop in your store. You can give a bunch of promotional items to churches and schools too. When there is a local festival they will probably be open to you having a table and giving away items. Whatever you can do to get your name out will work.