Small Business Saturday?

[gingicat]

I'd love to hear about any suggestions people may have for Small Business Saturday (November 24) shopping, especially locally. (Topical, I know…)

Details of the national anti-Black-Friday event:
http://www.sba.gov/saturday

Edited to add: When I originally went looking for the info, I had completely forgotten that it was an AmEx thing. As someone pointed out in the comments, AmEx charges ridiculous fees to businesses, especially small businesses. MasterCard and Visa aren't more than a few cents per transaction better. Please do pay cash if you can.

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

This isn't an anti-Black Friday event. It completely supports Black Friday and just suggests you then do some additional shopping the next day. Why not shop small businesses on Friday, too, after all?

[gingicat]

Ah. I thought it was supposed to be an alternate.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

FTR, I am still very much in favor of supporting smaller, local businesses rather than the big guys, just not necessarily in the AmEx-sponsored way. :)

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I think it is smart of them to promote it on Saturday, because truthfully the small businesses can't compete with the deals being offered by big box stores on Black Friday. I don't even bother to open my store on that day because it isn't worth it.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Harvard Book Store is participating and they'll have some specials as well. I quite like them; note that they now sell both e-readers and book-books.

In Davis Square, Boston Shaker, Dave's Fresh Pasta, Flatbreads, and most of the usual suspects are also participating.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Porter Square Books also does both hardcopy and e-books.

[masslibrulgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm not whether they're participating officially, but here are a few local stores I like:

Davis Square
Davis Squared - gifts, accessories, housewares, cards
Magpie - locally made crafts
Dave's Fresh Pasta - noms! (I especially recommend Taza chocolate and Butter Girl Baking cookies)
Artifaktori - vintage clothing, accessories, and housewares

Porter Square
Nomad - housewares and clothing from around the world
Ward Maps - posters of new and vintage maps
Joie de Vivre - random fun stuff (like a yodeling pickle! come on, you know you need a yodeling pickle.)
Porter Square Books
Tibet Arts - handmade clothing and jewelry, and meditation supplies
Mudflat Gallery

Ball Square
Blue Cloud Gallery
Lyndell's Bakery

[masslibrulgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh also, if you're looking for any kind of antiques, the Cambridge Antique Market is awesome. It's in a 5-story warehouse building near Lechmere, and they have pretty much anything you can imagine.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

My suggestion: pay cash when shopping at local, small businesses. Doesn't cost you anything.

[somervillesnow.livejournal.com]

This. So that the small business doesn't have to pay the exhorbitant credit card fees in case anyone didn't see why which are especially high for small businesses that can't negotiate them down based on volume.

[ron_newman]

Something feels wrong to me about having an official US Government website advertising an American Express promotion, complete with ®-mark.

[gingicat]

Yes.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I think the national anti-Black-Friday event you are looking for is "Buy Nothing Day". I am fond of celebrating it. :)

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

This event did start out as AmEx sponsored and AmEx still gives rewards to its customers for using their AmEx cards on Small Business Saturday, but I think the general idea has just about eclipsed AmEx. Many people I have chatted with didn't know it was sponsored by AmEx.

That being said, cash is a great way to pay a small business, because we do get nicked with CC processing fees. If you don't have a CC processor that gives you a flat rate on any card (like Square does), you do pay more to process AmEx cards. You also pay more for folks using rewards cards.

As an aside: If the small business has a bank with a cutting edge mobile app that lets you deposit checks by taking photos of it, then writing a check is almost as good as cash.