Small Business Saturday’s a big deal
NEW YORK — Many small and independent retailers who are holding Small Business Saturday shopping events Thanksgiving weekend are banding together with others, believing that there's strength in numbers.
Small Business Saturday, started in 2010 to encourage consumers to shop in their small local stores rather than national chains and what are called big box stores, has become an event in neighborhoods, towns, even cities as retailers recognize they can draw more customers as a cohesive group than by offering discounts and promotions on their own.
Mama Java Coffee, an online coffee retailer, is joining with seven other online businesses that cater to mothers to offer a joint discount. A shopper spending $40 at any of the companies on Small Business Saturday will get $10 off purchases at the other seven. Kim Roman, owner of Mama Java Coffee, said the group, which will market the event on Instagram and other social media, came up with the idea just a few weeks ago.
“We were chatting about ways to be unique and help promote each other,” she said.
Many communal Small Business Saturday events have grown to the point where they're organized by local chambers of commerce and community business organizations that have big marketing budgets. About 200 indie retailers throughout Portland, Ore., are banding together in a marketing effort called Shop Little Boxes that will run from Friday through Sunday. The stores are offering discounts, many of them 10 percent, and shoppers get raffle ticket numbers for each visit and purchase they make. Shop Little Boxes has a smartphone app that shoppers can use to find participating stores and to register their raffle ticket numbers.