Tony Curtis-Wellings, founder of Faraday’s Kitchen Store, started readying his store for the holiday season back in August.
To be ready for November and December, Curtis-Wellings orders three times Faraday’s inventory level. He works with his staff to train and identify promotions in the store and starts running new digital advertisements daily in November.
This is all to prepare the kitchen store to make 70% of its annual revenue and 100% of its profit in two short months, with a majority of that occurring on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
“For the kitchen store side of the business, this is a really important time for us,” Curtis-Wellings said.
Small Business Saturday was created by American Express in 2010 to support small businesses and encourage consumers to shop local between the major sales holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The U.S. Small Business Association has co-sponsored the event since 2011.
American Express reported this year that consumers have spent about $201 billion on Small Business Saturday since its inception
“Small Business Saturday is more than a day. It is an opportunity for Austinites to invest in what makes our city unique — our diverse and creative small businesses,” wrote Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, director of Austin’s Economic Development Department, in a statement.
Local Austin retailers, like Faraday’s Kitchen Store, are readying for the holiday and encouraging Austinites to shop locally on Saturday, especially after a year filled with inflation and economic turmoil for some business owners.
Pei Sim, owner of local stationery and paper goods store the Paper and Craft Pantry, focuses solely on Small Business Saturday every year and closes her storefront to allow her staff to take a break before the busy holiday shopping season.
On Saturday, The Paper and Craft Pantry is hosting a vendor pop-up market with over a dozen other small businesses at its storefront to celebrate Small Business Saturday and encourage Austinites to shop locally.
“I love being really intentional with the products we have in our shop, and finding really great, unique, quality goods from all over the world that people that love paper goods are just really excited to find,” Sim said.
In preparation for the sales holiday and market, Sim said the storefront is staffing extra personnel that day and even some days throughout the holiday season to offer better customer service and support the store as more and more people come in.
The Paper and Craft Pantry will have new merchandise and will include goodies with purchases at the market. As part of the market, vendors donate what would be a vendor fee to local nonprofits, with this year’s recipients being Black Mamas ATX and the local chapter of the Make a Wish Foundation.
Like The Paper and Craft Pantry, Paws on Chicon is also supporting a local nonprofit on the sales holiday with a charity drive to support Austin Animal Center’s Orange Dot Crew. The pet store, which has a focus on pet nutrition, will have a giving tree and will host discount and sale items to support the nonprofit as a kickoff to the holiday season along with deals on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
Tim Andrews, managing partner at Paws on Chicon, said supporting local businesses is essential during the holiday season and will impact Austinites more directly than they realize.
“Austin is a very expensive place to live, and local independent merchants tend to pay their staff better than big box stores do, and when people spend money in locally owned business, the vast majority of that money stays right here in the Austin community,” Andrews said. “It goes directly back into the economy here in Austin. So, it’s not only good for the merchant and the merchant’s employees, but it’s good overall for the community, because it keeps that money here and flowing.”
Shopping doesn’t slow down even for furry family members, Andrews said. To prepare the store, Paws on Chicon packed the store with extra inventory to assure shelves can remain stocked throughout November and December and ordered special holiday-themed gifts and toys for pets and pet-lovers alike.
“I normally don’t remember much of it, it’s all hands on deck in the store all day long,” Andrews said about the holiday season.
As holiday shopping picks up, focusing on locally owned stores is even more important and will offer customers a better overall shopping experience because it is more educational and personal, Sim said.
“People going out of their way to support a small business means a lot because they’re choosing actively to support a person. They’re choosing to go for quality over quantity,” Sim said. “And I love that. Specifically on Small Business Saturday, it’s become a day that really highlights local businesses.”
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