Leading as much as vacation season in years previous, Andover native Mike Lamagna ran up and down Newbury Street in Boston, begging everybody he knew who owned a storefront on the busy metropolis avenue to permit him to host a small pop-up occasion for his enterprise, Long Wharf Supply Co.
Not this yr, nonetheless.
Lamagna will dwell out his dream Saturday when he formally opens his firm’s first brick-and-mortar area at 119 Newbury St. It additionally falls on Small Business Saturday, which enterprise homeowners and officers say is important for the long-term survival of native outlets.
“It’s the one day of the year where everyone reflects on what they have on the line and when you own a small business, it’s your entire livelihood,” Lamagna mentioned inside the shop Friday. “There are real people behind small businesses, so when you purchase from a small business, you are supporting someone’s heart and soul and everything they’ve put into their business.”
Lamagna’s area will function a pop-up store by means of the vacation season, and doubtlessly longer, Lamagna mentioned, if he secures a long-term lease. The retailer is filled with the corporate’s staple merchandise, fisherman sweaters crafted with cotton, lambs wool, and recycled oyster shells and plastic water bottles.
When clients stroll by means of the shop’s door from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, they may discover Lamagna shucking oysters for them, whereas his household helps run the shop.
As inflation hovers round 8%, the best fee in 40 years, enterprise officers are calling on customers to comprehend that native outlets have to be supported all through the vacation season and whole yr.
In an interview earlier this week, Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, urged customers investing a few of their holiday-spending {dollars} into native companies and to buy in-person. Online purchases characterize simply 5% of complete vacation gross sales for small companies, Hurst mentioned.
“Every small business needs one of two things to survive: 1) higher sales, and 2) lower costs,” he mentioned. “To some extent, those two objectives are going in the wrong direction; higher costs because of inflation, and sales, hopefully will go up, but that is up to the consumer and where they invest those dollars.”
Last yr, impartial retailers and eating places introduced in roughly $23.3 billion on Small Business Saturday, up 18% from $19.8 billion in 2020 and greater than the $19.6 billion pre-pandemic spending in 2019, based on the American Express 2021 Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey.
In the research, 78% of impartial retailers indicated vacation gross sales will “enable them to stay in business in 2022.”
Business proprietor Cynthia First spent Friday afternoon at her store First Rugs along with her 4-year-old golden doodle Fica, questioning what number of clients she’s going to see within the coming days.
First opened the store, which sources and sells rugs, earlier this yr on the primary flooring of a 5-story constructing within the SoWa Art and Design District. The enterprise additionally has areas in Acton and New York City.
“It is one in a number of things that we are hoping will bolster the business,” First mentioned, including that she wished Small Business Saturday was really a “small business month” by means of December.
For people trying to assist native companies, artists and designers, the SoWa Arts District opened a Winter Festival and Holiday and Market on Friday that runs by means of December 11.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”