Most Americans are aware that Thanksgiving will be followed by the biggest shopping day of the year – Black Friday.
Many are also aware that the Monday following Thanksgiving has since 2005 been known as Cyber Monday, a day celebrating online buying and selling. But not as many people know that the Saturday after Turkey Day is also a special day in realm of shopping: Small Business Saturday.
Created in 2010 by American Express, Small Business Saturday is designed to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize businesses that are both small and local.
“Shopping locally is very important, and our money is proven to turn over at least five times within our local community,” said Houston Area Chamber of Commerce Director Velena Ingram. “That’s important to keep us alive and thriving as a community. Even if it’s something where we think we could save a few bucks by going to Springfield or Rolla, we’ll probably still spend the same amount in fuel and we might actually save money by buying it locally.”
“I’d say it’s the only way our town is going to survive,” said Houston mayor Don Tottingham. “It used to be that a lot of families had pretty nice livelihoods running small businesses in the downtown area, but with the appearance of large chain stores a lot of them have disappeared. That’s kind of sad, and it has left much of the downtown area vacant or in disrepair.
“But there are still some places that offer specialty items where people can choose to go and make their purchases.”
Ingram pointed out how shopping at small, local stores is about more than supporting local merchants.
“By shopping locally, we’re going to keep our own families thriving and its helps keep us all taken care of,” she said. “If we don’t keep our money in our own community, it’s going to suffer. By keeping it here, we’re helping feed our neighbors, friends and ourselves.”
The idea of Small Business Saturday has been adopted by the United States Small Business Administration, and information can be found online at http://www.sba.gov/saturday.