PENSACOLA, Fla. — As black friday winds down for big box stores, local businesses are preparing for Small Business Saturday.
The shopping holiday was created to encourage people to support the more than 33 million small businesses in the U.S.
3-and-a-half million small businesses call Florida home.
Several of them here in Pensacola say this season will make or break their year.
“The entire store starts at 20% off, but the more you spend, the more you can save up to 35% off,” Rusted Arrow Mercantile co-owner Samantha Breedlove said.
“We’re doing $10 off every $100,” Unique Boutique owner Angie Carter-Rosier said.
The shopping holiday was coined in 2010. At the time, meant to boost small retailers that were hurting during the economic recession.
It intentionally falls between big box retailers’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
“This is what we work all year for,” Breedlove said. “We put all of our dreaming and planning for over a year into these couple of days.”
Friday night was busy for downtown Pensacola. Shoppers were out in Palafox.
“We were just looking at our numbers, and so far this is on track to be one of our best Black Fridays since we opened, which is so exciting,” Breedlove said.
Just a few blocks away, Black Friday was a different story for other small businesses along Garden Street.
“I wish I had good news, but with the construction right now, today it’s Black Friday, and we’re about 25 to 30% of what we did last year,” Carter-Rosier said.
Construction has been going on for months along Garden Street.
“A lot of small businesses are experiencing the construction or are going to, so we heavily rely on this time of year to really kind of pump up the bank account a little bit to help us survive some of these circumstances,” Carter-Rosier said.
The city is set to start its ‘reimagine Palafox project’ on January 5.
“We’re trying to make this year the best one yet so that we can really save up and use that to help us get through the construction,” Breedlove said. “We’re gonna use all of that momentum to get us through the beginning of that at least.”
The city is expecting the $10 million project to be completed within 7 months.
The small business index reports 8-in-10 mom and pop stores say the next few weeks are key to their overall profit for the year.
“It’s just this time of year that if you don’t make it now, I mean, you’re gonna really struggle all year,” Carter-Rosier said. “We definitely need local support again all over the area, with local businesses needing local people to support us.”
This year’s Small Business Saturday is especially important for those businesses in the middle of construction and for those bracing for it.
“I’m looking at different subscription boxes. So if it’s a little tricky to get downtown, we can help deliver so that you can get your weekly mercantile fix right to your door,’ Breedlove said. “We have a back door that we might even use. I plan on doing a lot of fun workshops and events where I collaborate with local artists to do different events in-store, so that it’s still walkable, and you can still get in.”
“You still have the opportunity to shop, and then we’ll help bring it to you if it’s too tricky to get downtown,” she added.
