Black Friday makes us picture people lining up outside of stores waiting to rush in and grab anything they can see. There is a good chance someone could get trampled in the process. Black Friday has always been an event to look forward to as customers look for a new fridge, game, or pair of shoes. Black Friday is the day to get it all. Some people are fans of it and some aren’t. Some people want to go out and shop while others stay at home.
The people of Columbia have a lot of options for “Small Business Saturday.” Small Business Saturday is where people are given the opportunity to go to downtown Columbia and shop at their local businesses. The purpose of this event is to encourage consumers to shop locally in person and online at small businesses. American Express started this holiday on November 27, 2010, their main goal for this idea is to get people to “Shop Small” and put more money into the local economy, during the great recession of 2010. Small businesses are like snowflakes, each one is small and unique.
Small Business Saturday is the one chance you have to go to the small businesses around your community and buy things for loved ones, friends, pets, or literally anyone, and one small purchase can make a big difference. Small business Saturday occurs on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Nationally Small Business Saturday brought in 17.9 billion dollars in 2022. In 2022 nearly 6 in 10(59%) people said that they were going to participate in the event, that’s even more than Black Friday(56%). After Covid hit, a lot of small businesses fell due to the fact that no one was going outside and no one would walk around downtown and that resulted in many businesses shutting down. Covid-19 also introduced many new ways for people to shop without going inside of the store. Curbside pickup is the most popular out of the bunch, because of the fact that when Covid initially hit it was a good way for stores to keep their income up, and it was a non-contact way for people getting their groceries and not risk getting Covid-19.
When it gets to this time of the year many businesses big and small have started to release their Black Friday and Holiday sales early. Front End Supervisor Aiden Murphy stated that The Home Depot does this because of the fact that if they didn’t, and they only released it on Black Friday the store would overflow and the employees would become stressed, and it is the same with other companies. For example, The Home Depot releases their deals up to two weeks early and that’s just to control how many people they have in the store and to keep up with their inventory. That’s also why businesses put out Halloween merchandise and Christmas merchandise weeks before the actual holiday. Usually a week after small businesses participate in the Living Windows event, this event is where people go downtown and there is a select amount of small businesses that hold Live performances, Open houses, Shopping, and much more. It is being held on December 1, 2023, from 6-8pm.