Fort Collins takes Small Business Saturday seriously, especially in the Old Town area of the city. Old Town serves as a gathering point for the Fort Collins community, hosting festivals, First Friday Art Walks, local bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, and many, many local businesses. The area is nicely landscaped, inviting, dog-friendly, and easy to navigate via bike, car, or as a pedestrian. It even served as the inspiration for Disneyland's Main Street, USA! It is not uncommon to see the sidewalks of Old Town bustling with people throughout the day and into the evening during any part of the week. For Small Business Saturday, many businesses advertised up to 50% off merchandise or coupons to cut the cost of shopping at a retailer that may not always be able to give the lowest price for an item on your wish list.
Here's coverage of Small Business Saturday in Fort Collins by the local newspaper:
We started our day at La Creperie, a small French bakery and restaurant with the best croissants this side of the Rocky Mountains. As we sat drinking espresso and digging into our pastries, we casually chatted with our server, Jean Claude, as he whizzed past our booth to help other customers. In the brief conversation we had, he said he noticed an uptick in business on this particular Saturday, although his Saturdays tended to be generally busy on their own. I explained that it was Small Business Saturday and that that may have been the cause for the cardio workout he was getting serving tables. Jean Claude seemed genuinely excited to know about Small Business Saturday and wanted to know more. I told him about our household choosing to purchase our holiday gifts locally, to keep our money within the community, and he mentioned that that was something he tried to do as a general practice. It made sense to Jean Claude, as an employee of a small business, to support his friends and neighbors in the hope that they would reciprocate down the road. He also mentioned La Creperie partnering with local agriculturalists to source more local food products to enhance the quality of their food and support local farms. It seemed like a great idea to me, something a lot of businesses already do in Fort Collins and beyond, and gave him the name of a local coffee shop that sourced all of its prepared food locally.
Next, we stopped in Curiosities, a gift shop full of items from local artisans. As I was walking around, I asked a sales associate how the day was progressing. She mentioned that they were so grateful that Small Business Saturday had finally rolled around because the flooding from the Fall had really taken a bite out of their sales. Interestingly, I hadn't pondered the implications of the flooding on small business in the area and how its economic effects could have rippled out months after the actual incident. The floods were a distant memory for many by now, but for Curiosities, and a lot of other small businesses in the area, they were a daily challenge to overcome even months after. Being able to purchase items at Curiosities for my loved ones not only made me feel like I was able to give back to a community I know and love so deeply, but it provided me with a backstory I can tell the recipients of the gifts about their items, where they were purchased, and why it was important to me to purchase from local vendors. I was not only giving a physical gift to my friends and family but also a piece of me, something that isn't really possible to do at Target or Walmart.
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| Beautiful Old Town Fort Collins - pedestrian and dog-friendly |
What was especially cool about Curiosities was the interaction with local artists they provided that Saturday. The shop invited many of the artists to hang out in the store for the day, sharing their passion and process for their creations with the general public. I had a great discussion with Will, a local woodworker who makes furniture out of pine beetle kill wood. Will praised Small Business Saturday as a great opportunity to get out of his shop and thank his customers for their patronage. Unless he is working on a commissioned piece from a specific client, he mentioned, he rarely interacted with his customers. He felt the opportunity to be in-store with his creations was a great way to solidify relationships with clients and entice them to become repeat customers. It was also a convenient way to genuinely show his gratitude for those who support his work and livelihood.
Small Business Saturday was a wonderful way for me to connect what we read in Roseland a few weeks back about sustainable economies and the prevention of economic leakage. The overall experience was also more satisfying as the consumer. Being able to actually engage in conversation with local artisans and business owners while I was shopping leant to a more meaningful experience and the conversations I had can be stories I pass along to the recipients of my holiday gifts this year. I also find it interesting that American Express, an enormous credit card company, would initiate an event like this. I imagine it has earned them significant public support and positive publicity but I am unaware of any additional gains from their affiliation with the event.
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