Americans are voting with their dollars. Sandwiched between the frenzy-inducing duo of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday has quietly become a force.
Last year on Small Business Saturday, an estimated 112 million Americansspent a combined $15.4 billion at independent neighborhood retailers and restaurants, up 13% from 2015.
The figures are not in yet for this year, but neighborhoods everywhere were filled with locals strolling and shopping on Saturday (a much more pleasant prospect than the lines and brawls that have come to characterize Black Friday).
The sales are not huge in the scheme of things—Americans spent more than $5 trillion in 2016 across all categories of retail. And this year, online sales alone on Black Friday topped $5 billion. But as malls, department stores and chain retailers become online roadkill—more than 19 chains have filed for bankruptcy in 2017—Main Street merchants are seeing opportunity.
Glass Half Full
In a national survey of more than 850 independent retailers by Advocates for Independent Business, two-thirds report that, despite their smaller size, they are responding to the profound shifts in the retail industry as well as or better than competing national chains are. They credit their resilience to their deep expertise, personalized service, community involvement and rewarding in-store experience. Those factors are behind the resurgence of independent sellers of books, toys and records. […]
The post Why Locally Owned Shops Deserve Our Business the Rest of the Year, Too appeared first on Locavesting.
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