This is the season when businesses compete for consumers’ dollars. Black Friday promotions have pushed the envelope in the competition. Small businesses try to get their share in attracting consumers with their own Small business Saturday.
Small Business Saturday was started in 2010 by American Express. It gives $25 cash back to card holders who sign up to support the initiative by making it a point to make purchases in a local shop instead of big retailer shops.
American Express initiated the concept and merchants happily joined in the effort to give out incentives to shoppers the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Media has always hyped up Black Friday and people overlook what small businesses mean to people in the United States.
In Ladue, Missouri, pharmacy shoppers can find silver wine goblets or Lilly Pulitzer outfits. In St. Charles City, history buffs would enjoy the restored buildings and individualized stores. It promoted holiday shopping for years. Visitors find costumed characters walking the streets with horse drawn carriages and buildings decorated as part of what the city calls Christmas Traditions. The season is usually the best time for restaurant owners and merchants.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay went around the city’s small business shopping districts Saturday. He bought a gift at the Third Degree Glass Factory before he visited the businesses in the Central West End. He said that around 80 percent of people are employed in small businesses. People who work in the area are their neighbors and this is their livelihood. This is why it is good to support small businesses and locally made products to rejuvenate the local economy.
