This week, Old Town Cape is again supporting a Saturday, Nov. 26, effort, Small Business Saturday, originally launched a dozen years ago by credit card giant American Express.

Lee Schlitt,Old Town Cape Board of Directors acting president

"The day brings attention to spending money locally, especially with small businesses, as opposed to the large box stores," said Lee Schlitt, acting president of Old Town Cape's Board of Directors and owner of Broadway Prescription Shop at 710 Broadway.

Post-pandemic revival

Liz Haynes,Old Town Cape executive director

"Our small businesses in downtown Cape are seeing strong traffic and revenue. The biggest obstacle continues to be workforce. Many businesses are at a point at which they're either ready to expand to a bigger location or a second location — or they already have," said Liz Haynes, Old Town Cape's executive director.

The numbers

Recent data received from Cape Girardeau County Treasurer Roger Hudson would seem to support renewed optimism in the idea of buying local.

To wit: The county's general tax revenue for November 2022, reflective of dollars spent locally, jumped 21.5% from the same period one year earlier.

Correspondingly, the county's use-tax revenue — measuring out-of-state and online sales from mammoth retailers such as Amazon — dropped double-digits in both September and October from the same two months in 2021.

Schlitt noted the trend is pointing folks back to bricks-and-mortar stores.

"I think that's what it appears like and people are more comfortable being out after a pandemic lasting two years, [and are] more interested in being out in the community rather than buying stuff online," Schlitt observed.

Up close and personal

"It's nice when you go to Annie-Em's at Home and you buy something and you see [owner] Emilie Buelow is checking you out, or Hutson's Big Sandy Superstore and one of the owners waits on you. In Cape, you're going to see the owners taking pride in their business and what they're selling you."

Kanaan Steiner, owner/stylist at Hair Design Studio, 625 Broadway, echoed Schlitt's thinking.

"There are so many reasons why shopping small is important. It's about creating new opportunities not only for my team and their careers, but also for the community to enjoy downtown. With community support, we can keep tax dollars within our local economy helping downtown development and the city overall," Steiner said in a statement released by Old Town Cape. "When you shop small, you create and build relationships with businesses that care about you and the place you live, compared to a big box store that has no personal ties to the community."

AMEX's idea

American Express was born in 1850 in Buffalo, New York — a city now digging out from up to 6 feet of lake effect snow received a few days before Thanksgiving.

During the national recession of 2010, AMEX created Small Business Saturday on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage patrons to "shop small" and bring more holiday shopping to small businesses.

The effort quickly captured attention.

In 2011, a U.S. Senate resolution passed in support of the day with participation, AMEX reports, from all 50 states this year.

Small Business Saturday earned a "shout out" from then-President Barack Obama in a 2011 blog post.

"From the mom-and-pop storefront shops that anchor Main Street to the high-tech startups that keep America on the cutting edge, small businesses are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of our nation's promise," Obama wrote. "These businesses create two out of every three new jobs in America, helping spur economic development in communities across our country and giving millions of families and individuals the opportunity to achieve the American dream. Through events such as Small Business Saturday, we keep our local economies strong and help maintain an American economy that can compete and win in the 21st century."

AMEX's website contains a direct appeal to shoppers for Small Business Saturday.

"You might not realize it, but every time you pick up a cup of coffee from your favorite neighborhood cafe or buy a gift from a local artist's online store, you're shopping small and making a difference."

Impact

Schlitt said patronizing the shops of people you see every day is vitally important.

"By and large, the small-business owner is local, lives in the community where the store is located, their kids are on the local little league team [and] they're in the community going to restaurants every single day, supporting where they live," Schlitt noted. "Cape's a great community and supports local businesses. If you look at downtown over the last 10 years, the number of new businesses which have opened, it's been great and that's only happening because the community sees them as the lifeblood of Cape Girardeau, the downtown area."

Old Town Cape's district comprises 130 downtown blocks of Cape Girardeau, home to more than 300 businesses.

"We have seen continued momentum in terms of new businesses opening in the downtown district. This trend will only increase and gain momentum as some pivotal downtown projects reach completion such as the Century Casino hotel, the townhouses on North Main Street, Scout Hall and others," Haynes said.

A salute

Schlitt assumed Old Town Cape's board leadership after the Nov. 8 death of the organization's president, Chris Hutson, of family-owned Hutson's Big Sandy Superstore.

"There can't be a better example of a family giving back to the community. It's impressive," Schlitt said.

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