BOZEMAN — This weekend is arguably the busiest weekend of the year for shoppers. And, to make it even busier? Smacked right in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday.
“It’s like the backbone of our nation's economy, really. The Small Business Saturday,” says Toni Bradley, assistant manager of Montana Gift Corral.
Montana Gift Corral is a local small business that most folks have probably gotten a gift from at some point in time. Toni tells me this gift store, which has been open for more than 30 years, is excited for yet another Small Business Saturday.
“It can be a very booming day. You know, it could be even bigger than Black Friday. We’ll probably even have hors d'oeuvres and little things to treat people,” says Toni.
But people don’t celebrate Small Business Saturday for the free hors d'oeuvres.
“The economy has kind of been a little low right now. But locals here are just so comradery and they love coming downtown and seeing other people,” says Toni.
Montana is home to 123,419 small businesses. And this year, over 100 small businesses are taking part in festivities here in Bozeman. So, I headed to another small business that sells to a more...niche audience.
“We are doing 17% off storewide, no exclusions, for 17 years in downtown Bozeman!” says Sherri Smith.
Smith is the owner of Suelto Boutique, a lingerie store downtown. But Sherri tells me Suelto is more than just luxury bras and underwear.
“You know, lingerie is everyday. We all wear bras, we all wear panties. But I think people don’t realize lingerie is actually really difficult to fit. And that is why we don’t sell bras online,” says Sherri.
So, I asked Sherri how her small business has been keeping up with online shopping and big-name stores.
“A lot of your customers are friends. In this business, it’s a woman's specified shop. We cater to women and their children. We’ve watched those children grow. We’ve done fittings for their children, even their grandmothers,” says Sherri.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are currently 33.2 million small businesses operating in the U.S. Those small businesses have generated 12.9 million new jobs over the last 25 years. And if you didn’t know, here in Montana, small businesses employ 65% of the private workforce.
Which is why Toni, Sherri, and all small businesses hope to see everyone downtown Saturday shopping small.
“If we didn’t have small businesses, where would we be? Everybody would shop at home, on Amazon. So it’s kind of like bringing people back together,” says Toni.
