Rogers retailers unite to lift sales
Event promotes small businesses
ROGERS — Black Friday was quiet in downtown Rogers, but the small businesses located in the historic district hope their fortunes change today.
The retailers have banded together to promote Small Business Saturday. The national event sits between Black Friday and Cyber Monday and encourages customers to forgo the big-box stores and visit local retailers.
Business owners in downtown Rogers say that’s the biggest struggle they face.
“If you want to be a good, successful businessman, you have to sell something Wal-Mart doesn’t sell,” said John Rhea, who owns Vintage Antiques II with his wife, Cherry. “People do come downtown for Small Business Saturday, but we wish they would come downtown the rest of the year.”
Small Business Saturday started in 2010, but Rhea said that he didn’t notice an uptick in sales from the event until last year. He hopes this year’s event brings more people to his store and helps make downtown Rogers more of a destination.
“After all these years, I don’t know how we can get people downtown anymore,” he said.
Jonathan Edwards, coowner of Pigmint, just opened his flower and gift
shop across the street. He also runs a Fayetteville store but didn’t notice any additional revenue at that location last year.
“It really was dead,” he said. “But we’re the new kids on the block [in Rogers], so we’re very excited to see a tight network of merchants that supports shopping locally.”
Local businesses say that partnership is key in getting more customers downtown.
Rogers used to have more events, banners and advertising, but local businesses say it’s become prohibitively expensive. The situation has encouraged downtown merchants to get creative. They connect with potential customers on social media and jointly pay for advertisements.
“It’s extremely expensive,” said Mary Schopp, who coowns The Rabbit’s Lair with her mother. “So when we do it, we do it together.”
Second-hand shops in the area have banded together, as well.
A group of 15 Benton County flea markets, antique shops and specialty shops are celebrating “Second Hand Saturday” and offering door prizes, snacks, drinks and extended hours.
“We don’t look at it as competition,” said Sharon McCarver, owner of Rose Antique Mall & Flea Market. “We look at it as promoting and supporting one another.”
Schopp is hopeful that Saturday’s event will be successful but is worried that chain stores’ efforts to extend Black Friday savings all week will detract from Small Business Saturday’s draw.
“I would have thought it would have been insane in here [Friday], but customers may be other places and then hopefully they’ll come here,” she said.
Last year, shoppers spent $5.7 billion at locally owned shops and restaurants on Small Business Saturday, according to a survey conducted by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business. Last year’s total marked a 3.6 percent increase over 2012’s event.
Larry Brian, director of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said the event should help small businesses show off their strengths.
“I don’t believe there’s that many people who differentiate any more between locally owned and national chains,” he said. “I think it’s more about price, location and service. The small business people can really compete when it comes to service.”