AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin is encouraging residents and community members to participate in Shop Small Saturday to support local businesses.
"It's a way to show our small business community that we support them, that it's just not the big box chains that we go to," said Jackie Mayo, City of Austin Small Business Division Business Information Coordinator.
Shop Small Saturday is a holiday shopping event after Thanksgiving and Black Friday to help support the small, local businesses within a community. The annual event helps small business owners within Austin, and across the country, thrive and continue working.
“Small Business Saturday continues to be an important holiday shopping event — part of a larger effort to support small businesses throughout the year,” explained Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, director for the Economic Development Department. “We encourage Austinites to make a big impact by spending dollars locally.”
Small businesses help create jobs and improve the economy of the community they are within. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses generated 13 million jobs over the last 25 years; they account for two out of every three new jobs added to the economy.
"For every $100 spent locally, $45 stays in Austin," added Mayo. "That means hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring back into our economy, and those small businesses are able to hire people."
Austinites hoping to support their community can shop within various districts that show a variety of sides to Austin's flourishing culture. Each of the districts provide a different range of restaurants, stores and services to fit a myriad of needs. These districts include:
"They [small businesses] are the backbone of every community," added Mayo. "Without them, during even the hardest times, lots of communities would struggle if they did not have a small business there to help them level the field and help the economy continue to struggle."
The holiday was instated by American Express in 2010 and officially co-sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2011 to help encourage residents to support their fellow community members going into the holiday spending season.
As small businesses continue to recover from the effect of the pandemic, now more than ever its important to support them.