Local businesses excited about Small Business Saturday

Holiday shopping officially started with Black Friday — and now it’s Small Business Saturday.

The holidays are a great time to bring small businesses more cash and foot traffic, and most of that money stays in the local economy. However, retailers are not the only businesses that benefit from Small Business Saturday, service businesses do too — especially gyms.

“Oh, January’s coming and I want to start my resolutions. And they know that their loved ones and their friends will want to do their resolutions too. Being able to give gifts of gym memberships and gift certificates and things like that,” said Amanda Payne, co-owner of Payne Athletic Company.

In addition, Style and Smiles Salon in Rexburg is excited to experience its first Small Business Saturday ever.

“People around this area tend to be a little more frugal, and so they don’t go crazy spending tons of money like other places do. So that’s why I like to try to keep my businesses affordable. I do the jewelry that’s more the affordable prices, I try to keep my salon more of that mid-price rather than the higher-end,” said Style and Smiles Salon owner Jana Bake.

“We don’t always attract the big, box stores. The big, super nationwide chains for things. So small companies like ours, really are what keeps small towns like us going. It’s not some big billionaire CEO who lives thousands of miles away running it. It’s a local family who lives here and our kids go to school here. This is our livelihood,” said Payne.

“It really does help, because it’s bringing the money to the people rather than to some corporation that it doesn’t make a difference to them one way or another,” Bake said.

Now that Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are over, Cyber Monday is next up in line for holiday spending.