Put small businesses on your holiday shop list
BY SHAYE WEAVER
Black Friday and its notorious crowds are back
this week, but so is Small Business Saturday —
a shopping movement that encourages making
purchases from local and brick-and-mortar stores in
the rush of your holiday shopping.
The day, which was originally kicked off by American
Express, aims to bolster community shops and
the neighborhoods they’re in each Saturday after
Thanksgiving.
According to Amex’s 2018 Small Business Economic
Impact Study, for every $1 spent at a small business,
67 cents stays in the community — and every
cent counts, especially in New York City, which has
seen its fair share of empty storefronts. The citywide
commercial vacancy rate jumped by 45% between
2007 and 2017, going from 4% to 5.8%, with an increase
of 5.2 million square-feet of empty retail space,
according a report by Comptroller Scott Stringer this
year.
“Local communities feel vacancies every day,”
Stringer said in September. That’s why some organizations
have taken steps to recapture New Yorkers’
attention to small businesses in their neighborhoods,
like nonprofi t Union Settlement in East Harlem.
With two years under its belt, Union Settlement’s
Buy Local East Harlem initiative, which connects
small businesses in East Harlem with new customers
and hospitals, schools, and major cultural and
social service organizations, has led to an additional
$553,000 in sales for participating small businesses,
it says.
“Buy Local East Harlem has created huge opportunities
for businesses to increase sales, resulting in
more hiring and in more resources retained inside of
the neighborhood,” said David Nocenti, executive director
of Union Settlement, of the initiative’s impact.
This Saturday, many business improvement districts
are making Small Business Saturday more festive
— aside from just asking you to shop at your local
gift shop.
Lyft is also participating with many of the city’s
BIDs by offering 20% off a Lyft ride to partnering
Small Business Saturday locations around the fi ve
boroughs. Use its localized discount code found at
blog.lyft.com.
Amex is also partnering with NYC shops to offer
freebies and specials including:
Baz Bagels (corner of Lafayette and Houston) —
Free blue marble bagels
Happy Paws (316 Lafayette St.) — Free customized
dog treats to the fi rst 125 customers (10 a.m. to 7
p.m.)
Oddfellows (55 East Houston St.) — For purchase:
Blue cotton candy and sprinkles-themed menu (9
a.m. to 11 p.m.)
The Jones Restaurant (54 Great Jones St.) — Special
“Small Adds Up” menu offering three options to
choose from including a Doughnut Project doughnut,
special potato chips and non-alcoholic apple cider (9
a.m. to 4 p.m.)
Gasoline Alley Coffee (325 Lafayette) — Free Shop
Small-branded brownies to the fi rst 200 customers
who purchase a beverage (10 a.m. 7 p.m.)
Check out americanexpress.com/us/small-business/
shop-small on where to fi nd participating stores
near you.
10 November 28, 2019 Schneps Media
/blog.lyft.com
