THINK BIG, SHOP SMALL
Local companies look for boost from Small Business Saturday
WOONSOCKET – Everyone knows about Black Friday on the day after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday at the end of the weekend, but shoppers still shouldn’t forget their local businesses when starting their holiday gift buying next week.
They can also do their part for local businesses on Small Business Saturday and “shop small” as an alternative to the big box or major outlet offerings.
Cara Benjamin, co-chair and secretary of the Blackstone Valley Independent Business Alliance with co-chair and president Dave Gobeille, said this year’s Small Business Saturday on Nov. 24 should once again draw many area customers out in support of their local retail and restaurant businesses just as it has in recent years.
“We are just promoting that people should buy at their local businesses and “Shop Small,” Benjamin, herself the owner of the Allstate Insurance Benjamin Agency at 125 Eddie Dowling Highway in North Smithfield, explained.
The Alliance represents more than 115 businesses in the Blackstone Valley, including retail outlets, hardware and building supply businesses, jewelry and specialty stores, restaurants, professional and trade services and entertainment businesses.
There will be more than a dozen local retailers open in the area on Small Business Saturday and also a number of popular restaurants where shoppers can buy gift certificates or just stop in for a meal while spending their dollars locally.
“One of the things we try to promote is keeping the “green” in the Valley,” Benjamin said.
A number of the Alliance’s independent businesses in Woonsocket, North Smithfield, Cumberland, Lincoln, Blackstone, and even Pawtucket will be participating in Small Business Saturday as will small businesses around the state and throughout the U.S.
Small Business Saturday was started on a nationwide basis in 2010 through a sponsorship by American Express, which provided the promotional materials, advertising and community outreach to make the small business event a success. By 2013 there were 1,400 independent business organizations and individuals working to promote Small Business Saturday at the community level and by 2017 7,200 neigh-
borhood champions were working to promote small businesses around the country, according to American Express.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has also noted the impact of the annual shopping day on small businesses and this year is again joining its organizers in asking Saturday shoppers to think local.
“Please join the SBA and organizations across the country in supporting your local small businesses by shopping at a small business,” the SBA stated in a posting on its
website.
The owners of Pepin Lumber at 830 Cumberland Hill Road, members of the Pepin family, had already received their Small Business Saturday posters and promotional materials on Tuesday and said they were looking forward to a steady stream of regular and new customers stopping in on Nov. 24.
“It definitely gets better and better year after year,” Jeanne Budnick of Pepin Lumber said.
Pepin Lumber and Vose True Value Hardware just across the street at 849 Cumberland Hill
Road, will be two sites just on Cumberland Hill Road where local customers will be able to participate in Small Business Saturday. Pepin will be offering a 20 percent discount on items purchased from its popular Country Gift Shop as part of its Small Business Saturday participation, according to another of its family owners, Elise Houle.
Pepin has been participating in the Saturday event almost as long as it has belonged to the Blackstone Valley Independent Business Alliance, according to Budnick.
“It is a great group of busi- nesses that talk the talk and walk the walk,” Budnick said of the Alliance’s annual participation in Small Business Saturday.
“They believe in promoting independent businesses,” Budnick said.
For more information on the Blackstone Valley Independent Business Alliance and its members visit www.buylocalbv.org, or check out the Small Business Saturday website at www.shopsmall.com.