NORTHAMPTON — With the holiday season quickly approaching, Northampton is set to once again celebrate its small business community during Bag Day on Nov. 22 and Small Business Saturday on Nov. 29.
Bag Day started in 1988 as a way to support Northampton retailers, restaurants and service providers in a local kick off of the holiday shopping season.
Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vince Jackson told Reminder Publishing while he and his team are encouraging folks to shop local year round, Bag Day is the perfect reminder for people to come and support the business community.
“Bag Day for Northampton is the official kick off the holiday season, and it is so important to our local economy because local businesses come together to support it,” said Jackson. “It does a great job of harmonizing small businesses around an event and activity that their customers and consumers look forward to and that the economy benefits from, because it includes the entire business community. That’s the beauty of it.”
Shoppers can pickup a commemorative bag at participating locations or Thornes Marketplace on Bag Day and use it as a check list while shopping. Over 70 participants will offer Bag Day discounts on merchandise and gift cards.
For more information on the day and a full list of participants visit hnnedigital.ac-page.com/BagDay.
Jackson said the annual Northampton celebration of small businesses brings high morale to city business owners and shoppers locally and visiting from afar. He added last year was a record-breaking year in terms of participation.
“What’s great is it’s retail shops, it’s coffee shops, it’s restaurants, they’re all offering unique and special deals to attract customers and its their way of saying to their customers, ‘thank you, we’re giving you a discount during the time you are looking for something to jumpstart your own shopping experience for the holidays,’” said Jackson. “And from a consumer standpoint, it’s great too. We do see and hear stories where consumers are anticipating all the traffic and excitement around it and may see something that catches their eye. It’s a win-win from both angles.”
For Jackson, his favorite part of Bag Day is exploring the city’s downtown and various small businesses. He said he likes to find unique items that are not accessible at your average mall or plaza.
“For me personally, it’s a treasure hunt. I always find things that I probably wouldn’t normally buy that are just the perfect gifts for the people on my holiday list. It ranges from apparel to household accessories, you name it. Not only do I get a good deal, it’s also just the surprise of inventory that’s out there and the items that catch your eye,” explained Jackson. “The beauty about Northampton is that you find things in a lot of our retail shops that you wouldn’t get at a mall. There are items hand and locally made. So that’s what it offers for me. And then of course it’s always fun to go by a couple of my favorite restaurants, take a shopping break, get a 20% discount off a meal and some good drinks, so it’s just part of creating a festive holiday shopping experience.”
Small Business Saturday presents local shoppers with another unique opportunity to show support for local businesses the following weekend. Jackson said this day is critical each year for a local economy like Northampton’s.
“The chamber has about 500 members, and over 75% of those are small businesses. Another 20% are nonprofits. So, our base is all about small businesses,” said Jackson.
Jackson said the Northampton Gift Card program has become beloved for shoppers in the community and is a great way to support local businesses, especially around Small Business Saturday. The program functions as a single gift card, accepted at over 125 local shops, restaurants, spas and attractions in the city.
After purchasing a Greater Northampton Gift Card, users can load the card with a dollar amount of their choice. That balance can be spent at any of the 125-plus locations part of the program. The idea is to keep dollars local in the community, because a higher percentage of dollars remain in a community when spent locally through small and local businesses.
Since its inception, the Greater Northampton Gift Card has infused over $5.6 million into the local economy.
“That’s another way we support small businesses, by reinvesting about $350,000 or more every year to the local economy to keep participating merchants engaged, and consumers, as well as it keeps dollars turning in the community,” said Jackson. “What we see throughout the year is that while sales are pretty standards January through November, in December, we sell half of our gift card volume alone. So, it’s a real win for the gift card program.”
Jackson added there has been a 7% increase to sales this year through the gift card program, but on the flip side, there has been a 5% decrease in gift card user redemptions compared to a year ago.
“That’s just the sign of a sluggish economy. We hope an event like Bag Day and Small Business Saturday will stimulate a little bit more spending to keep those dollars turning and keep those small businesses growing and help them overlap last year’s sales,” Jackson said. “It all works together and it’s a really, really critical time for small businesses.”
Jackson added he hopes for a great turnout for both events and encourages the public to come spend the last two Saturdays in November getting ahead on holiday shopping while supporting small businesses.
“I tie it back to job creation. The people who work at these small businesses are friends and neighbors and that’s really a key driver of the economy as well,” Jackson said. “The more businesses can be successful, the more it invites other entrepreneurs to the area and create jobs for residents.”
