Redlands small businesses urge Black Friday shoppers to shop local
REDLANDS, Nov 19, 2012 (Menafn - Redlands Daily Facts - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --The city of Redlands is partnering with small businesses in town to help promote Small Business Saturday, and across the Inland Empire businesses are gearing up for the follow up to Black Friday.
The promotion -- which was created by American Express in 2010 -- urges residents of cities nationwide to shop local and help small businesses as a result on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.
To help promote the day, the city produced a public service announcement narrated by Mayor Pete Aguilar.
The video -- which was filmed in October and debuted at the Nov. 6 City Council meeting -- shows Aguilar visiting several small businesses in the area and shop owners encouraging customers to take advantage
of specials offered that day.
Over two-thirds of the money spent at local businesses go back to the community, which in turn, supports residents, events and local infrastructure.
The city contacted small businesses in town to help promote the promotion, said Carl Baker, public information officer for the city of Redlands.
More than a dozen agreed to participate, he said, including the Frugal Frigate.
Gay D. Kolodzik, owner of the well-known children's bookstore in the city's downtown district, said the promotion helped her business last year tremendously.
"It was fantastic. It was our best sales day of the year," she said.
Kolodzik credits some of the success of last year's successful
sale to the one-on-one attention given to customers by her staff.
When one had questions, a staff member was ready to help, she said.
"I don't do a lot of the Black Friday shopping, but being in the store that day was a warm and friendly feeling. Everyone got attention," Kolodzik said. "We wrapped gifts for people, helped pick gifts out. It's hard to find that nowadays."
Kolodzik said she was excited to participate in this year's promotion, emphasizing its focus to promote small businesses, such as her own, especially since inventory can be vastly different from what is offered at big box stores.
"We don't have some big special merchandise that's marked down drastically to get (customers) to come in, but what we do have is what they may need and what they may never see again," she said. "You're not going to find many of these products in the big stores."
Beyond Redlands, businesses are gearing up.
Rhino Records in Claremont is participating in the promotion.
The independently owned record store has benefitted from the promotion in the past, holding its biggest sale of the year the day after Black Friday.
"I remember last year being very successful for us," said Adrienne Scherer, manager of the store. "That weekend ends up being pretty busy in general for us, and it's a perfect time to support independent or small businesses."
Scherer also credited a resurgence in fans of vinyl as another source for the store's success.
"We have to thank (the resurgence in) vinyl sales for that," she said. "We also sell a lot of record players as well. So, I think, yeah, it should be a good day.
"Last year was good for us, and I think we're going to do a steady pace as we did last year. But if we can do better, that will be awesome."
Contact Kristina via email, by phone at 909-259-9321, or on Twitter @TheFactsKris.
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