Local Store Owners Look To Cash In On Small Business Saturday
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If you have enough cash on hand after the Black Friday, you may consider shopping on Small Business Saturday, an effort to get consumers to shop local.
The event started as an experiment in 2010 to promote the idea of buying from small area businesses.
"In the last two or three years, it's really picked up and matched our Black Friday sales day, and that's always been a huge day for us," said Maura Campbell, owner of The Free Shop, a clothing boutique in Ambler. "It really just drives home the importance of shopping small, keeping the money in the community, keeping jobs in the community and keeping your town nice."
Campbell says it's a double dose of shopping.
"We have hundreds of people over the weekend," she explained. "And it is ten times busier than just an average day of the week."
Around the corner, Judy Serrao owns the Antique Garden Cottage. She says Small Business Saturday is great for her business.
"It like quadruples my business. There are lines in my little store," Serrao said. "I think it just makes people feel the old days, and the warm and comfort of small towns."
Now in its 7th year, Small Business Saturday has grown in popularity -- with 95 million people shopping local last year.
"It allows people to get out in town, and walk around and see different things, and maybe go to store they wouldn't normally have gone to," said John Killaly, who owns Shoefitter Shoe Store.
All agree it's not only a profitable weekend for the town, but also introduces new visitors in hopes they will return.
