Small Business Saturday on November 26 (Presented by American Express)
Growing up in New Jersey, I spent the school year in a fairly typical suburban area. Aside from the “3 Square Jersey Meals” combo of bagel shops/pizzerias/diners, most businesses were not of the local variety. We didn’t really have a “main street” with shops and restaurants and general stores. The smallest grocery store around was the Super Shop-Rite. Most towns in the area were the same way. You got a chain grocer, a chain restaurant (maybe two), a video store, and a big box. That’s just how suburban sprawl goes, I guess. For most the year, I was barely aware that small businesses even existed.
But each summer, I’d spend 3 months living at the Jersey shore. The little oceanfront hamlets crowded together at the Atlantic’s edge, some towns smaller than one square mile. The houses were closer to one another. The trees were taller, and sometimes they even made canopies over the street (something we didn’t see much back home). You could ride your bike everywhere. People had beautiful front porches, and actually sat on them and acknowledged their neighbors as they passed by.
Most importantly: there was a main street. With businesses! Local ones! Little shops and cafes occupying storefronts deemed too small for the national chains, serving as meeting spots and neighborhood destinations and pleasant distractions after a day at the beach. The small businesses at the center of each shore point are what pulled the towns together; they helped coalesce the throngs of tourists and locals alike into a true community, bonded around the goods, services, and experiences served up on Main Street.
Good on American Express for organizing and promoting Small Business Saturday. Black Friday has become a consumer gorge-fest of obscene proportions, in which big box stores like Best Buy and Walmart open at midnight to hundreds of rabid customers and people are literally trampled to death. Given my digital inclinations, I’m a big fan of Cyber Monday, but you can’t say it does anything to support your local economy (not that that’s a pre-requisite for shopping, but its nice to have). Beyond the political talking point-ness of the statement, small businesses really are an important part of our communities that deserve and need our support.
Through its OPEN Forum targeted at connecting entrepreneurs with one another and providing small business advice, American Express has recently positioned its brand as a best friend to business owners. By focusing on this important, growing, and beloved segment of the population, AmEx can implant itself into the DNA of these small businesses. As they grow and become more profitable, AmEx will continue to be seen as a trusted partner and adviser and reap the benefits of their success. “We’ve been with you all along,” is a powerful brand statement.
AmEx’s Small Business Saturday is a great example of a brand doing something that is both good for business and good for the world. I know I’ll be shopping local on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, and I hope you do the same.
30-Day Challenge #12
