Outside of Chair-Man Store, Park Slope, Brooklyn. Photo Credit: Marisa Marcellino
The holiday season is upon us. Thanksgiving is a week from today. Black Friday has become the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season. And then there is Small Business Saturday, on November 30th, the weekend has become the biggest shopping weekend of the year.
With Thanksgiving so late in the month, there are six fewer shopping days than last year between that holiday and Christmas, making the season even more crucial for retailers than usual. Despite the reduced timeframe, the National Retail Federation is predicting holiday sales will rise 3.9% this year, to a whopping $602.1 billion. The federation states that holiday sales typically make up 20-40% of sales for a retail business for the year. For many small businesses this number is actually much higher.
That includes businesses in Park Slope. Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store, at 232 5th Ave., the owner, Ann Cantrell, says the holiday shopping season is when she does 60% of their sales for the year. The store is made up of Brooklyn-centric items such as wallets and books as well as a variety of other eclectic gifts.
Cantrell emphasizes that the holiday shopping season “helps us plan and grow and buy for the rest of the year.” She smiles widely and exclaims, “We start thinking about Christmas, December 26th!”
Her store will be participating in Small Business Saturday and she mentions that when people shop at her store, they are “not only supporting our small business but so many local vendors in our shop within Brooklyn. The investment is staying in Brooklyn.” Her shop carries many items made or produced by Brooklyn-based companies or people.
A few blocks down at the Chair-Man Store, at 176 5th Ave., Maggie Russo says her family business of 30 years does its largest amount of sales for the year during Christmas, “it means a lot,” she says. Russo’s store is a big attraction for tourists as well as local shoppers. It carries items that she says have a “Brooklyn power” sentiment. These include, Brooklyn bridge lamps and bags, “Brooklyn Girl” t-shirts as well as postcards and stamps, which have been greatly requested by tourists.
She calls being a small business, “survival of the fittest” even within small businesses. She mentions how they started carrying Brooklyn t-shirts and then Brooklyn Industries, a shop down the street, did as well and that became hard to compete with. As far as getting people to shop locally as opposed to going to larger department stores she says, “if they close the subway before Christmas we’ll do great. People won’t go anywhere, business will be great.” She quickly follows up with she has no desire for a disaster to happen but mentions how disasters help their business because people are forced to stay and shop locally.
She discusses the added challenge of online shopping, “a lot of people want to shop online these days, I hope the store still exists.” Chair-man has an online site, but it is still being developed and is mainly for tourists who come and visit the store to then re-order something they already bought in the store.
Small Business Saturday, on November 30th, is a day sponsored by American Express so that small businesses get more exposure during the height of the retail season. The credit card company offers registered card members a $10 credit on their statement when they spend $10 or more in a single in-store transaction at a registered small business store location.
The 5th Ave. Park Slope BID is highlighting Small Business Saturday with a tree lighting at 6:30 P.M. as well as a visit from Santa.
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