By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday when local retailers and business owners band together to get customers shopping in their communities.
“It shouldn’t be about getting up at 5 a.m. and running through a door and getting trampled — it’s not the spirit of Christmas. When you come here, you’re important to us,” said Elaine Moffett, owner of Periwinkle’s Fine Gifts. “You’re an individual and you’re treated very kindly year round by us.”
The movement was started in 2010 by American Express as a way to help small businesses rebound from the recession. The incentive: a statement credit on cardholders’ bills. Now, it’s a holiday weekend mainstay with the support of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
This is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. SBA Regional Administrator Kellie LeDet says it can make or break a small business.
“Look at the small businesses. Look at what they do. They hire our locals, they stabilize our communities and our economy and are destination spots,” LeDet said.
“You have a lot of bills coming up and this gives you a jump start on getting it down pat in your checkbook then, you can afford everything and pay. It gives us a jump on the season, to be able to know we can trust what we’re buying and it’s going to sell. Plus it’s a good advertising day as well. They may not purchase it now but come back for it,” Moffett said.
There are nearly 800,000 small businesses in New Jersey. They employ almost two million people in the Garden State, according to the National Retail Federation. The SBA says more than half the population nationwide owns or works for a small business.
“Two of the three new net jobs in this country will be in small business so we have to make sure that we support these efforts moving forward,” said Congressman Donald Payne, Jr.
“It’s not easy. It’s hard. I come to work at 6 in the morning, I go home at 10 o’clock at night,” said restaurant owner Marcos Quijada. “When I wake up, I wake up with energy because we have a business.”
Danny Anglada, part owner of CKA Kickboxing, said, “The good thing about us is I do have three other partners so we all help each other out as much as possible, so it makes it easier than being a single business owner and doing it all by yourself.”
Do he feel competition with some of the bigger outlets and national chains?
“What we do here is great so it’s a lot easier for us,” Anglada said.
He says what makes his gym different is personal attention and encoragement. That close connection with clientele is what small business owners say makes them different from the big box stores. And what makes them a valuable part of the community.
“If you go to the local soccer games, football games and you’re looking around the fence, you see who supports these venues, who supports these activities. It’s the small business owners,” said LeDet.
But does Small Business Saturday put more money in your pocket as a local retailer?
“Well it’s certainly a bigger day. We do give discounts for the volume we do that day, which is fine. We want to give back as well. They’re giving to us, we want to give back to them. So it is a day to stimulate them to get in at the beginning of the Christmas season and see what we have as well,” Moffett said.
By all accounts, Small Business Saturday is growing. Ninety-five million people “shopped small” last year, shelling out more than $16 billion. That’s a lot of cold, hard, cash but small-town retailers say, staying local and shopping small warms the heart.