GO BIG by shopping small
Small Business Saturday aims to help hundreds of local, independent retailers
Small Business Saturday gives shoppers the chance to be heroes to their local retailers.
“Every year, I always thank people for shopping on Small Business Saturday,” said Rachel Gruntmeir, the owner of The Black Scintilla, a women’s clothier in Midtown at 1112 N Walker, Suite 104.
“More and more, my customers are telling me that they don’t even do Black Friday anymore,” Gruntmeir said. “They only are shopping local, and only coming out on Small Business Saturday.”
Gruntmeir said retailers in her part of town once again are working with their neighbors on Automobile Alley, Uptown 23rd and other retail enclaves to cross promote each other and the deals they are offering consumers for the event.
“I know that at Nhu Avenue (at 1111 N Walker), if you spend $100, you get a free plaid scarf,” she said, throwing out just one of many examples. “And these are big scarfs that are really nice.
“All of us are offering specials, and then we are making sure our customers know what our neighbors are doing. We will decorate the neighborhood for it, have tons of giveaways, snacks and drinks.
“We have got some really fun things planned.”
Jerrod Shouse, director of the National Federation of Independent Business in Oklahoma, also encouraged Oklahomans to participate in the event.
“The idea is simple: Instead of sitting at home and ordering online or driving to the nearest shopping center or big-box store, you shop at small, locally owned businesses for things you simply can’t find at the mall,” he wrote as part of a column about the event.
“And instead of dealing with temporary workers who don’t know the merchandise, you’re likely to deal directly with the owner who has a vested interest not only in selling you something that day, but in making you want to come back time and again throughout the year.”
Momentum builds
This year marks the seventh time retailers
have grouped together to promote both themselves and each other as part of the event.
While it was created initially by American Express as a way to both promote local businesses and the company’s line of consumer credit offerings, it seems to have become a much bigger deal as time has passed.
American Express said it created the program in 2010 after observing that small businesses were hurting as the U.S. economy was in the midst
of a recession.
It says the program turned out to be very popular, noting the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution in 2011 supporting the event.
The following year, officials in all 50 states participated in promoting Small Business Saturday, and the company says the event has grown from there.
It says more than 1,450 individuals and organizations signed up to promote the event in 2013, and said that number last year had grown to more than 6,700.
Based on self-reported data collected through a survey, American
Express says 112 million Shop Small Saturday shoppers during the 2016 event generated an estimated $15.4 billion in sales across the nation.
And, small businesses matter.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy estimated 345,839 small Oklahoma businesses employed 709,118 employees in 2016.
In the Oklahoma City area, consumers are encouraged to visit their neighborhood local businesses.
Gruntmeir said locals can see which area businesses are involved in the promotion this year by visiting the Small
Business Saturday website, allowing American Express to see their locations, and by clicking the “View the Shop Small Map” link at the top of the page.
Keep it Local
It’s likely many of the businesses involved also belong to a group of 300 local businesses that make up Keep it Local OK.
Bryce Bandy, a cofounder of the organization, said the businesses’ owners look forward to it because that’s when they see the biggest bounce in customers this time of year.
“It is the one time of
the year where average customers remember to go support their small businesses on one day.”
Bandy said Keep it Local OK also introduced its new member card for shoppers this week.
As in past years, consumers who buy the card (it costs $15) can use it to get discounted products and services from Keep it Local OK member businesses.
But Bandy and his partner created the product primarily to promote quality independent, locally owned businesses in the state.
He said Keep it Local OK has been delivering cards to its member businesses for a couple
of weeks, and that it’s delivered about 5,000 cards, so far.
“We like to have them in the business owners’ hands by Black Friday,” Bandy said.
As for Small Business Saturday, Bandy said he hopes consumers will take advantage of this weekend’s expected mild weather to support local businesses where they live and work. Owners of Keep it Local OK businesses have told him they’ve seen a pretty slow 18 months, he added.
“Hopefully, it will turnaround for them pretty soon, if it hasn’t started to already,” he said.