Shoppers urged to take part in ‘Small Business Saturday’
How did Black Friday treat you? If you haven’t found the deal you were looking for, here’s an alternative: Saturday is Small Business Saturday! There are 28 million small businesses in the United States, including 56,000 in El Paso. El Paso’s chambers of commerce say that if you want more of your money to stay in the city, than skip the big boxes and shop local. “Small businesses are the core backbone of the community,” said Cindy Ramos-Davidson, CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “They are main street mom and pop and they are critical to economic formula.” Ramos-Davidson wants those who rushed around on Black Friday to listen up. “It’s important to shop small and think small and buy small, promote small, hire small and do that locally because you are reinvesting in the community you live in,” Ramos-Davidson added, pointing out if Borderland Christmas shoppers will consider local before national, they could have a bigger economic impact locally than they may realize. “You kind of have to look at the numbers in terms of importance of keeping your dollars here and spending them locally.” According to the American Independent Alliance, when you shop at small businesses, about 48 percent, nearly half of your money stays in El Paso. But when you shop at national businesses, only 14 percent of your money stays in town. “It does inspire me to shop local,” El Paso shopper Christian Maese said. “But at the same time local, you don’t really have as much of like a selection.” “It does make me think, it really does,” said Borderland shopper Belen Gonzalez. “Like the homemade stuff, like the hair bows, just homemade stuff, it does encourage you to stay here and I enjoy it more than coming to the stores. Sometimes you get it better. And it wouldn’t be bodies to bodies.” Ramos-Davidson said if shoppers would just set aside a percentage of their cash to buy presents at small businesses in El Paso, like 25 to 50 percent, it would have a huge impact on the city.
