Business owners weigh on benefits of small business Saturday
(Source: Jamiese Price/WBRC)It's one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year and many people are deciding to shop local.
To encourage the idea of shopping local, Governor Kay Ivey has proclaimed today as Small Business Saturday in Alabama.
"It just lends itself to a sense of community,” said Melissa Mistrot of Fab'rik Boutique. “You keep your taxes local and that helps the schools. It helps the services in the area. We also get to build a relationship with our customers,” she continued.
71 million people are expected to participate in Small Business Saturday. Some shoppers like the idea of supporting mom and pop shops.
Others just like the idea of avoiding the big box stores or malls.
"I think it’s important that we keep the sale going to keep people coming in and if they can't deal with the craziness of Black Friday, they can come in where they know the people and know the clothes and get the discounts,” said Molly Hughes of Fab’rik Boutique.
But some small business owners, like Jheri Hunter said it's tough to compete with the malls during this holiday weekends so they have to be creative.
"We decided to get together and say hey we need to get a jump on the mall, let's do our small business Saturday a little earlier than waiting to that Saturday and waiting until Black Friday "
Hunter owns Pink Icing Accessories in Bessemer. She said several boutique owners decided to give deep discounts the Saturday before Small Business Saturday. They even extended those discounts throughout the week and into today. Hunter said she even picked up customers online.
"Today was like a cyber Saturday for me because actually I did a lot of online sales from my social media page. So I kind of broke even,” she continued.
Some Alabama businesses also had to compete with an early kickoff for the 2017 Iron Bowl.
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