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Merchants embrace Small Business Saturday

When something has been proven a success, the tendency is to not only stick with it but to expand it.

Such is the case with Small Business Saturday, the special holiday shopping day created by American Express in 2010 that has grown by the proverbial leaps and bounds since then. It will be Nov. 24 this year.

American Express said more than 100 million people participated in Small Business Saturday in 2011 and that will likely double this year, based on a survey AMEX commissioned after the 2011 event.

American Express created the event in 2010 and put it on the Saturday between Black Friday, when most shoppers hit the big-box stores the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, and CyberMonday, traditionally the biggest Internet shopping day of the year.

"We wanted to encourage shoppers to patronize the brick and mortar business that are small and local," American Express said when the event began.

It took advantage of the millions of people who use social media to promote the day on Facebook, Twitter and other avenues. It enlisted the support of other companies and organizations and advertised on television and radio, as well.

American Express still supports the day, providing small merchants with promotional materials and giving its own customers incentives to shop those small merchants.

From the start the day has received much support from large business organizations as well as politicians, helping with the tremendous growth it has experienced.

In central Illinois last year the mayors of several Peoria-area towns gathered for a news conference in Washington and promoted the day as a way to help those small brick and mortar stores.

"It was huge here. Our merchants have told us that Small Business Saturday was their biggest day of the year last year," said Chevie Ruder, executive director of the Washington Chamber of Commerce. "They cannot wait for it to get here this year."

The Washington merchants have another reason to expect it to be a big day this year, she added. The State Farm Tournament of Champions basketball tournament the week of Thanksgiving will be at Washington High School and at Illinois Central College, with the finals games at the high school that last weekend of November.

"We should have a big turnout of people in town that weekend and our merchants will be ready for them," Ruder said.

As will merchants in Peoria Heights, said Pat Drake, president of the Peoria Heights Chamber of Commerce and herself a small business owner.

"Small Business Saturday is very important to our merchants. We've learned shoppers do come out that day to support our small businesses and we appreciate it," she said.

One promotion the Heights chamber is doing is allowing shoppers on Small Business Saturday to register to win up to $300 worth of "chamber bucks," which can then be used with any Peoria Heights merchant.

Another push for helping small business is the 3/50 Project that started roughly a year earlier than Small Business Saturday. In fact, 3/50 Project founder Cinda Baxter was the national spokesperson for Small Business Saturday that first year.

The 3/50 Project's motto is "Saving the brick and mortar our nation is built on."

The project asks shoppers to decide which three independently owned business they would miss if they no longer existed, then asks them to visit those businesses and spent at least $50 in them. The theory is if enough people did that, many small businesses could be saved.

The 3/50 Project contends that if half of the employed population spent $50 a month in the independently owned businesses it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue.
Another number the organization brings up is 68.

"For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home," the 3/50 Project said.

Baxter, the Project founder, said she is a retail consultant whose mission is to strengthen independent brick and mortar businesses. A former retail store owner herself, she said she wants to pay forward the knowledge and expertise gleaned from that experience.

She said on the 3/50 Project website that when she is asked what she does, she responds, "I hand Superman capes to small business owners, then teach them to fly."

For more information about the 3/50 Project, including how to lend your support, the local stores and businesses that are affiliates and how it defines independent businesses, visit
www.the350project.net.

For more information about Small Business Saturday visit www.smallbusinesssaturday.com or find it on Facebook.

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