Small Business Everyday

On Saturday, businesses throughout downtown Red Bank were packed with shoppers taking advantage both of a beautiful fall day and a national advertising campaign seeking to aim the fervor of the annual Black Friday spend-o-thon away from the mall and onto Main Street.

With Red Bank retailers forever at risk with the sprawl of retail development in the form of big box retailers and indistinct shopping centers popping up and encroaching seemingly from all sides, Small Business Saturday, a second-year effort of American Express to urge buyers to shop local, served as a reminder to those who may have forgotten just what a true downtown can offer.

For Nancy Adams, executive director of Red Bank RiverCenter, shopping local has always been part of her organization’s marketing push. You’ll find plenty of what you’re looking for downtown, and more, she said, but many of the visitors to the borough’s downtown need some incentive. With its , Adams thinks the downtown makes a convincing case.

“You can’t get the feel you get from going to a downtown like Red Bank’s. We go above and beyond every year in our decorations and our efforts to create an environment with charm,” she said. “The malls try to create character, the shopping centers try, but they just can’t emulate what you’ll find here.”

The national shop local campaign looked to be a boon to the downtown, with hundreds of people popping in and out of shops, many of them leaving with bags that had not had previously. And, while several retailers made sure to plug the annual event with posters in windows, posts on social media sites, and even a few coupon deals here and there, what you found if you visited Red Bank was something special, but also something you’ll find next week and the week after that, too.

From to the , from to , a tour of downtown Red Bank throughout the season is an event.

Of course there are the shops, too.

“The collection of independent retailers, you don’t get that anywhere else,” Adams said. “It’s just not something you’ll find anywhere else.”

With so much money being spent during the holidays – the National Retail Federation claims this past Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday, saw a record $52.4 billion in sales – it’s important that shoppers consider spending some of it in downtowns like Red Bank if they’re interested in not only supporting small businesses but preserving historic downtowns.

“Part of what we (at RiverCenter) do is supplement the marketing for our small businesses,” Adams said. “We don’t have a huge budget, (the businesses) don’t have a huge budget, but we do what we can.”

According to small business advocates, nearly 70 cents of every dollar spent in a small business goes back into the local economy, whereas roughly half that amount enters the local economy per every dollar spent at a big box retailer.

So, if you haven’t done some shopping downtown, if not for the businesses, do it for yourself.