Following the conclusion of Black Friday, communities are encouraged to shop local and participate in Small Business Saturday.
Jenn Gregory, president of Downtown Strategies, recently spoke with AccessWDUN and said the program was started several years ago by American Express.
"Small Business Saturday is a focus on local entrepreneurs, locally owned businesses in our communities, to really remember how shopping locally can positively impact communities," Gregory said.
Gregory said shopping local has a major economic impact on local economies.
"For every dollar that is spent at small retailers, 67 cents stays in the community," Gregory said. "And shopping at those national retailers, that ratio goes down significantly."
Gregory said small businesses typically support other small businesses in the community, including janitorial services, marketing departments, etc.
"When small businesses survive, that encourages and gives confidence to future entrepreneurs to spend their money investing in local businesses, and it really helps communities thrive," Gregory said.
Gregory said Black Friday will always "reign supreme" from a sales standpoint, but more and more small businesses are enabling Black Friday deals to compete with their national retailer counterparts.
"You're starting to see more locally owned businesses run their Black Friday sales, whether that's online or in-store, with doorbusters and kind of all those typical things," Gregory said.
