Black Friday can be a full-contact sport. People line up at big conglomerates like Target and Wal-Mart foaming at the mouth and ready to throw haymakers in order to get the best possible deals on the newest gadgets and accessories. While people generally devote the day after their spending frenzy as a sort of shopping hangover recovery, many tend to forget that the following day is Small Business Saturday.
The “holiday” was originally created in 2010 as a call to help out smaller local brick and mortar stores, in between Black Friday and the other giant retail catering tradition of Cyber Monday. The tradition was first trademarked by one of the most unlikely companies to do so, American Express. The company provided free exposure for small stores in order to drive up local business at the beginning of the holiday shopping season. And as it turned out, it was a massive success. Barack Obama showed his support for the tradition in 2011 and in the years after it has grown in size considerably.
According to a report from Business Wire, Americans spent $16.2 Billion on Small Business Saturday in 2015 showing that the importance of this day is felt within communities across the country. The need for keeping local economies going cannot be overestimated and every penny helps. The Farm Bureau of Financial Services puts this importance in perspective as they found in a report this year that “when spending $100 at your local business, approximately $68 stays within your local economy”.
So with over 28 million small businesses in the United States, take some time out this #SmallBusinessSaturday to show your support and keep the small stores on Main Street, USA alive!
