Local Shop Owners, Customers Support Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday, a holiday created by American Express in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday to support the local economy, was celebrated by some and still completely unknown to others at Williamsburg Square Shopping Center on Saturday.

The holiday was created in 2010 and advertised via radio and television. Now its Facebook page has over 2.5 million likes. It was also the promoted search trend on Twitter yesterday. Small Business Saturday is largely linked with the 3/50 Project, which also encourages consumers to shop locally. 

Pam Koutsaftis, owner of Educator’s Market and Toy, is proud to be a subscriber of the 3/50 Project.

“Since we don’t have flat screen TVs for $149, we traditionally are not a major draw for Black Friday,” she said.

“I think nationally, [Small Business Saturday] is becoming more of a known entity than it has been in the past,” she said, noting that four customers were waiting in the parking lot for her store to open specifically for the holiday.

Fadia Nemeh, who just opened a clothing and accessory store named Mademoiselle, had never heard of the holiday, but supports idea of it: backing the unique products and flexible pricing local businesses offer. 

“I wanted to have a smaller boutique that was trendy, but have the prices be really moderate, prices you wouldn’t find at the mall,” she said. Nemeh buys all of the store’s clothing and jewelry from New York and Los Angeles.

After Nemeh began buying clothes for her store and researching the retail prices, she found that the mall significantly inflates the cost of their products. She said it’s hard for her to even shop there anymore. 

Small Business Saturday shopper Barbara Luciano had similar sentiments.

“I don’t like the crowds in the mall stores,” she said. “Customer service is more important— they know you when you go in and you feel like they want to help you— in the big stores they’re so shorthanded, you don’t get any personal service at all.”

Owner of Polish Pottery, Rick Holton, had never heard of the holiday and saw the majority of his business this weekend on Black Friday.

“There were so many people in here it was just crazy,” he said. “It’s a blur.”

For the most part, small businesses did not create sales for the holiday either because they could not afford to or because it wouldn’t have made a difference in their business. Most of the businesses saw the same number of customers both Friday and Saturday, and it was mainly shoppers with American Express who were talking about the newly deemed day.

However, even though the holiday is still relatively unknown, small business owners are totally behind the movement.

“It supports the local economy,” Koutsaftis said. “It keeps dollars in this area.”