Local sellers pull out all the stops for shoppers
Condensed holiday season puts even more pressure on success of Small Business Saturday
Karen Taylor and her friend Shannon Mumley kicked off a day of shopping Saturday morning with an Irish coffee at Vaughn’s Public House before heading over to Hartford Prints! to work their way through their holiday lists.
“We’re here because we believe in Hartford,” said Taylor, 36, who was clutching a couple of Christmas ornaments and a knit hat emblazoned with the Hartford Whalers logo. “It’s important to invest in small businesses if we want them to stay here for the long time.”
Hartford Prints! co-owner Rory Gale said the Saturday after Thanksgiving, branded “Small Business Saturday” by credit card giant American Express 10 years ago, is traditionally the busiest day at her Pratt Street shop. “It sets the tone for the whole holiday season,” Gale said.
If Black Friday is all about energized throngs seeking deals on 75-inch TVs, Small Business Saturday is about shoppers sipping tea and nibbling on pastel
colored macaroons while perusing soy candles and locally-sourced chocolate bars.
But retail on every level can be a rough business — and this year, with a compressed shopping season due to a late Thanksgiving, that’s even more true. The gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just 26 days, almost a full week shorter than it was in 2018.
So on Saturday, small businesses across the Hartford region pulled out all the stops to draw in customers. Around the corner from Hartford Prints!, Morneault ’s Stackpole Moore and Tryon was enticing shoppers with snacks and a raffle for a $500 gift certificate to the historic clothing shop, which dates to 1909.
Owner Jody Morneault says she’s trying to keep the shopping experience as old school as possible, noting that the store offers free gift wrapping, tailoring and other niceties that have largely disappeared from big department stores.
Morneault says she’s trying to fill a niche that mall stores and online retailers cannot. She scoffed at internet shopping: “They can never get the colors right in the photos, and how are you going to find something that fits you properly? It’s extremely difficult.”
Kimberly Cannon, who was selling her multimedia paintings at a pop-up market on Pratt Street, said national retailers and big online portals can’t replicate the experience of a locally-owned business.
“Yes, you can get everything at the mall or online, but as I always say to people, elevators are never going to replace stairs, and a bitmoji will never replace a greeting card,” Cannon said.
Small Business Saturday brings the focus back to those local shops, she said. “There’s a community, a sweetness there, that needs to stay,” Cannon said.
A study commissioned by American Express in 2018 found that about 67 cents of every dollar spent in a locally-owned business stays in the community.
“I always make it a point every year to come out and shop small,” said Jessica Mand, 47, of Glastonbury as she shopped for earrings to give as gifts and a T-shirt for herself. “It’s so important to invest the money here.”
That philosophy was shared by Jennifer Johnson of Pittsfield, Mass., who was browsing in the candle section of the Old Wethersfield Country Store Saturday afternoon. “You know where your money is going,” Johnson said. “You know you’re supporting someone in the community.”
Megan Jakubowski, the owner of the general store, said Small Business Saturday is generally a bigger day for her business than Black Friday. “We’re wondering how the holiday season is going to go,” she said. “Last year, we had five weekends for people to shop, but this year we only have three more weekends. We’re hoping everything is compounded and it happens all at once.”
Small Business Saturday is usually also a big day at Blaze and Bloom Vintage, a quirky home goods and gift shop on New Park Avenue in West Hartford.
But this year, “it’s a little slower than usual,” said Jennifer O’Connell, one of the shop’s owners. “I’d like to see a few more faces in here today. … I thought it would be busier due to the late Thanksgiving.”
Even in the vintage and handmade markets, competition from internet retailers is stiff. “There’s so much available online, and you can find unusual things now on Etsy and eBay instead of going to your local vintage store to hunt,” O’Connell said.
To compete with those online portals, Blaze and Bloom has embraced the trend of making shopping an experience by hosting events and workshops such as a knitting night and a sign-painting party.
“We’re trying to create a place where people can have a nice experience,” O’Connell said.