By Eleanor Kennedy
Black Friday isn’t the only special shopping day during the post-Thanksgiving weekend.
On Saturday, sandwiched between big-box-focused Black Friday and online-focused Cyber Monday, is Small Business Saturday.
“I want to see the day where they say Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday,” said Laurie Gulluscio, who handles marketing for the Lynchburg Retail Merchants Association. “You’re still not hearing that.”
Gulluscio said Small Business Saturday, a nationwide initiative in its third year, is an opportunity to keep shopping dollars in the community, support friends and neighbors who own businesses, and preserve a unique, customer-service oriented shopping experience.
“You have a great experience because no shop is the same,” Gulluscio said.
The Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce distributed 40 “Shop Small; Welcome to Small Business Saturday” doormats to local businesses throughout the week to remind shoppers that Small Business Saturday was on its way.
“We’re very much an organization of small businesses,” said Mike Lewis, the chamber’s director of sales.
Like Gulluscio, he stressed the value of supporting businesses owned by “neighbors and friends” and keeping local dollars in the community.
For Danny Givens, owner of Givens Books, Small Business Saturday is an example of a mindset that should last all year.
His store’s motto, Givens said, is “Find it here, buy it here, keep us here.”