Before you Google it, yes, Downtown Rochester did have a "Shop Local" campaign back around 1999. It was cute, kinda cool, but also a bit of a one-trick pony. Almost every downtown, either directly or indirectly has been doing shop local stuff for years. It was supposed to be the wake-up call to our residents to let them know that they should consider shopping downtown first. A strong message and a noble cause, and a lot of people took notice, including national retailers.
Yes, those big-box retailers started trying their hand at the shop local game too, with a goal of getting shoppers off the Internet and into their stores. Shop local, as cool as it is, just doesn't mean the same thing that it used to. Like "great customer service", it has become a vanilla version of what it was originally meant to be and its long-term effectiveness for downtowns is slight, at best.
And then along came American Express and little marketing campaign called Small Business Saturday. Let's be clear, AMEX created Small Business Saturday for one purpose - to increase engagement with small business owners and encourage more to accept American Express. But like many great ideas, it has taken on a life of its own and has gone way beyond just an AMEX promotion. It's like the classic "Shop Local", but the message is more direct - "Shop Small". And we all know that timing is everything, so it was strategically positioned between holiday shopping icons Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yes, independent businesses finally found a place on the stage in the big show of the holiday shopping season. And just like you experience either feelings of excitement or horror when you think about Black Friday, Small Business Saturday is much different. It's relaxed, friendly and very downtown.
And because small businesses typically can't compete with the chains on price, they have found a way to capitalize on this day in a very grassroots, very Main Street kind of way. From special in-store entertainment and refreshments to drawings and shopping passports, businesses have discovered the secret of the success of Small Business Saturday - it is exactly what their customers have been looking for all these years.
Case in point, I always go Christmas shopping on Black Friday. I'm not one of the out-of-bed-at-the-crack-of-dawn shoppers, but I started doing it with my Mom and Grandma when I was a little girl and I feel like it is a holiday tradition engage in a little weekend after Thanksgiving shopping. Black Friday has become for me and many others, one of the most repellant shopping campaigns in the history of the world. If you live for the discounts and don't mind waiting 2 hours in line to buy a $10 flat screen television, then knock yourself out.
But I know that there is another group of shoppers, much like me, that do want to do some holiday shopping that weekend, and we want to do it downtown. When we ventured downtown on Small Business Saturday last year, we enjoyed shopping in our businesses, maybe getting a cookie or taking advantage of some free gift wrapping. But I wasn't looking for a sale, I was looking for that holiday shopping experience that had been swallowed up by the "Open on Thanksgiving, 90% off mentality" that gets all the media attention. And I absolutely found it, along with millions of others that shopped on Small Business Saturday.
Yes, there are plenty that cast shade on American Express for creating this campaign, complaining that they are profiting exponentially. Well, if that is the cost of putting the spotlight on small businesses at the most crucial sales weekend of the year, then I'm good with that. In 2013, $5.7 billion was spent in small businesses on Small Business Saturday, so I think it's fair to say that it is here to stay. If you haven't signed up your downtown yet, do it today! I know we all have plenty to do, but add this one thing to your to do list. You won't regret it, and your businesses will thank you.
See you downtown!
Kristi
The Downtown Geek
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