CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Business owners across South Florida are hoping to cash in as the holiday weekend continues.
Small Business Saturday is a great way to support the local community and boost its economy.
Along Miracle Mile, the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce will officially kicked off their 2021 Small Business Saturday event just after 10 a.m.
While Small Business Saturday is nothing new, it really is taking on some added importance this year, considering just how many small businesses have been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some even forced to close their doors over the past couple of years.
For those small businesses that have been fortunate enough to remain open, Saturday is one of the first big shopping days of this holiday season.
“The (Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce) has been really great in getting people to support us and come to this event today and shop the rest of the mile (and) have people come and purchase things from local businesses,” said Eddy Martinez, owner of Bliss Imprints and Gifts. “Although everybody has an online presence these days, it’s important to see the customer and talk to them and see what they want and find the products that are good for them.”
Small Business Saturday is meant to follow-up on Black Friday, reminding people about the importance of shopping small and supporting our locally owned businesses.
In addition to some of the challenges caused by Covid, this year’s event also comes amid that ongoing supply chain crisis, with shipments of select goods and services now being slowed down.
Despite that, the National Retail Federation still kept a pretty positive outlook, expecting nearly 2,000,000 more people to hit the stores between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year.
That’s on top of a new statistic from the American Express Small Impact Study, which says consumers could pump an estimated $695 billion into the small business economy, a huge amount considering just how hard many of these businesses have been hit.