Small Business Saturday: Shop Small In Westwood-Hillsdale

WESTWOOD, NJ — The post-Thanksgiving weekend is always a time for shoppers to hit the stores, but what if you want your dollar to stay close to home?

If Black Friday isn't quite your bag, then wait one day and support a local store or business on Small Business Saturday.

This year, the all-local shopping event falls on Nov. 27, including in Westwood and Hillsdale.

The list of Small Business Saturday participants continues to grow year-over-year, and 2021 is no exception.

Here are five stores and businesses to check out this weekend, but that's just the start. To find the full list of participating businesses, click here.

• Westwood Pets, 15 Westwood Ave., Westwood
• Burritos & Tacos Mexica, 425 Broadway, Westwood
• Caffe Anello-Sogno Coffee, 11 Madison Ave., Westwood
• The Game Zone, 106 Broadway, Hillsdale
• Release Yoga Studio, 394 Hillsdale Ave., Hillsdale

Small Business Saturday began in the midst of another recession, when American Express decided to do jumpstart a small business shopping day in 2010.

The day quickly became a success, and caught on nationally, with the Senate unanimously passing a resolution in support of the day in 2011.

In 2021, the small business support day comes at an interesting and terrifying time for small businesses. The pandemic no doubt negatively impacted nearly all storefronts that profit mainly from hand-to-hand sales, and it didn't offer all that much help to those who could adapt to the e-commerce world.

According to a New York Times report, retail sales were up overall in 2020 thanks in large part to a shift to e-commerce. However, 1o companies accounted for 68 percent of all total e-commerce sales in 2020, with Amazon alone accounting for more than half, the report said.

Some small businesses, especially in the restaurant space, have taken an adapt-or-die approach to life during and/or post-pandemic, but others are fighting back.

The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas, owned by Danny Caine, could be singled out as the most boisterous of the anti-Amazon militia.

Caine, whose Lawrence store will give anyone wearing independent bookstore merchandise 10 percent off purchases on Saturday, has written a book called "How To Resist Amazon and Why". An article in The New Yorker in March raised the profile of his fight even higher.

How his effort to bring people back to downtowns across the country connects to Small Business Saturday could perhaps most clearly be illustrated by that discount, a peripheral movement on Small Business Saturday dubbed "Indies First", which urges people to support independent booksellers.

But resisting big business and bringing people back to America's Main Streets isn't the only thing American Express is pushing this year. In addition to the recurring themes of the shopping holiday, this year American Express is making a concerted effort to aid people looking to support Black-Owned business.

Read more about the initiative here.