BUSINESS News:

Small Business Saturday is today and local establishments are stocked and ready for shoppers. Many have discounts and special sales, prizes and treats and are counting on the community to stop by and visit.

First observed Nov. 27, 2010, Small Business Saturday is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local. Small Business Saturday is a registered trademark of American Express corporation.

In 2010, the holiday was conceived and promoted by American Express via a nationwide radio and television advertising campaign. That year Amex bought advertising inventory on Facebook, which it in turn gave to its small merchant account holders, and also gave rebates to new customers to promote the event.

American Express publicized the initiative using social media, advertising, and public relations. At least 41 local politicians and many small business groups in the United States issued proclamations concerning the campaign, which generated more than one million Facebook “like” registrations and nearly 30,000 tweets under the Twitter hashtags #smallbusinesssaturday (which had existed since early 2010) and #smallbizsaturday.

Los Alamos County Council issued a proclamation earlier this month declaring Nov. 28 as “Small Business Saturday’ in Los Alamos County.

This is an opportunity for the Los alamos Community to show small business owners in town that they matter and that they are supported.