QUARTER III | 2017
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LOS ALAMOS COMMERCE & DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Be Part of Something Big – Shop Small Last year 112 million people shopped local on Small Business Saturday and spent $17.8 billion at small businesses, according to American Express. Here in Los Alamos we don’t have a shopper count, but we do know that SBS makes a difference in the financial data of the local business owners and managers. Metzger’s Do-It- Best Hardware Manager David Jolly said “We had a great Saturday for November. Compared to last year, Los Alamos was up 12%. White Rock 82% (But they were in the middle of construction last year) Sue has kept a spreadsheet since we started in 2012. Each year sales have grown on SBS (again White Rock dragged us down last year). Over the past 4 years, our sales for this day are up 32% overall. We donate 5% of sales for the day to the United Way, so that contribution has also increased 32% from 2012 to 2016. I’m pretty excited about the way this has turned out, and anxious to hear from everybody else.” Stats from the Small Business Administration • There are 23 million small businesses in the country.
homemade goodies provided by my dear friend Marilyn. It was a wonderful day. We had a LOT of traffic. I would say that we had about 25% more shopper foot traffic than a usual Saturday. We were able to donate $165 (percentage of the day’s sales) to NMDOG as well as an additional $32 generously donated in our donation jar. Our day’s sales were 13% higher than our previous best day ever! So, I would say it was a rousing success!!” Dillane said. A SBS tradition in Los Alamos is for the participating businesses to donate a portion of their proceeds from Small Business Saturday to the nonprofit of their choice. This sets Los Alamos apart from all other communities that observe American Express’ Small Business Saturday and gives it a unique nature that makes it more about community. Businesses select what percentage or flat dollar amount they want to donate, and they select the nonprofit – which can be local, statewide, national or international, animal or people focused. Anything goes, including choosing not to participate in the tradition.
• Small businesses have increased by 49% since 1982 • 54% of U.S. sales happen at small businesses.
• Small businesses donate 250% more than larger
• Small businesses have created 8 million jobs since 1990.
businesses to non-profits and community causes (Source:
• Franchised small businesses employ roughly 8 million
Seattle Good Business Network).
people, and make up 40 % of all American retail jobs.
It costs nothing to register to participate. The benefits of participating in 2017 include being listed on the Small Business Saturday map, listed on the SBS website, mentioned in SBS social media posts, potentially being the focus of a SBS feature article, potentially being included as a challenge in the SBS Goosechase game, and receiving SBS swag to decorate your store for Small Business Saturday. There will be a kiosk mall set up in project Y for home-based businesses. Small Business Saturday is a tradition for Anna Dillane of Boomerang, who opened her business on SBS in 2014. “Our 2016 Small Business Saturday marked our two year anniversary. We had a bit of a party to celebrate with
• If you spend $100 at a local business, roughly $68 stays in your local economy. If you spend the same are a large business, only $43 stays in the local economy.
Some nonprofits participate as both a recipient of retailers’ proceeds and as a retailer themselves – such as the gift shop at Pajarito Environmental Education Center. Sandra West, PEEC Marketing Manager, said “We did a 20% increase over last year’s Shop Small event, which is post member discount and other coupons.” Contact us to get involved nancy@losalamos.org 661-4872 or ufemia@losalamos.org 661-4816. We have free marketing materials for use in promoting your business.