Sales at World of Wigs in Santa Ana soared 500 percent on Small Business Saturday, compared with a typical Saturday. And Toy Boat, Toy Boat, Toy Boat, a Corona del Mar toy store, tripled its sales from the post-Thanksgiving sales event in 2011.
American Express started promoting Small Business Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2010 to encourage shoppers to support their local merchants. This year, the credit card giant offered signs, door mats and $25 gift cards that participating merchants could give away and credit that its cardholders could receive on their next bill by shopping at qualified small businesses.
Toy Boat Toy Boat Toy Boat owners Mike and Lori Curtin ride specialty toys that they say are difficult or impossible to purchase.
H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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American Express reported Monday that about 500,000 small businesses nationwide participated this year. The company has not yet said how many consumers shopped locally on Saturday compared with the 103 million who spent money at small businesses during the 2011 Small Business Saturday.
But anecdotally, the day was a success for some Orange County merchants who had special activities and sales on Saturday.
?It was fabulous, one of best Saturdays we've had,? said Susan Upton, owner of Lolo Boutique in Fullerton, who offered a sparkling wine reception Saturday. ?Sales were twice what they were last year. It was fun; the people were nice and excited about what we had to show.?
The combination of Fullerton Chamber of Commerce support and American Express promotions brought more attention to Small Business Saturday, Upton said, adding that the boutique's patrons also filled two baskets with toys for dogs in animal shelters for its ongoing Santa Paws campaign.
Toy Boat owner Lori Curtin said, ?Our Small Business Saturday promotion went great! People from all over Southern California came in.?
A pre-event American Express commercial featured Toy Boat, and on Saturday KNX/1070 AM interviewed Curtin in a news report. ?That was a surprise blessing,? she said Monday.
The shop offered free food and children's arts and crafts projects. ?We also collected a half box of Toys for Tots,? Curtin said. ?We gave customers who contributed to that fundraiser an extra 15 percent discount. It was a heart-warming day.?
Rhonda Thaut of World of Wigs said the store had not had much business on past Small Business Saturdays, so owners decided to reach out to customers to spread information to boost sales. The wig shop offered door prizes, snacks, gifts and hourly flash sales. Customers responded this year as never before.
?People would call in and ask, ?What's on sale now?'? Thaut said. ?It was so surprising. We had half off everything in the store one hour; buy one, get one free another hour. And some of our wigs sell for $3,000, so those were good offers.
?We had so much fun,? she said. ?We had Halloween wigs on clearance, and we even had a couple of Santas come in and buy wigs. Some post-surgery patients said they didn't realize they could refreshen their wigs. They were grateful to get information they couldn't get from the hospital.?
Laguna Beach Books offered half off selected art books on Small Business Saturday, and owner Jane Hanauer said, ?We had a ton of customers, many visitors as well as regular customers. I haven't compared it to a year ago yet.?
The OC Mart Mix, a collection of small, owner-operated businesses, was especially busy, said spokeswoman Allison Olmstead. ?What we found is that Small Business Saturday supporters aren't the early-morning shoppers like Black Friday shoppers, but they are the most thankful and kind group of shoppers out there. They were so supportive and thrilled to be helping the small, owner-operated businesses at the Mix.?
Those entrepreneurs included Sarah Dowdell, owner of Deer Lovely and Whiskey Tango 1977. ?We more than doubled our numbers from last year,? Dowdell said. ?We saw a lot of families and people spend the day with us thanks to the holiday activities, the music, and the photo booth at the OC Mart Mix and the SoCo Farmers' Market.?
Another was Alex Forsythe, owner of Analog. ?Having a day to support small businesses is like a dream come true when you are in your first year of business. So it was great to see so many people come out to support us,? he said.
Jayson Hanson, owner of Stoned Jewelry added, ?It was one of our biggest days this year. It was busy all day. It felt like the economy was back. The Small Business Saturday momentum kept going through Sunday.?
Portola Coffee Lab and Theorem had lines of customers out the door from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, said manager Jeff Clinard. ?We took that time to connect with our customers, answer questions about our brewing methods and even employed a hand-held device so we could ring up customers who also wanted to buy coffee beans and gift cards while standing in line.?
Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or jnorman@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/small-378778-saturday-business.html
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