Lethbridge businesses battle for Black Friday weekend sale dollars

Whether it’s a big box store or online, the Black Friday weekend has been a concern for local businesses.

Sarah Amies, executive director of the Downtown Lethbridge Business Revitalization Zone, knows how important local shopping is to the local economy.

Amies hopes “Small Business Saturday” will lure area residents to support local retailers.

Set in between Black Friday and cyber-Monday, the Saturday initiative is also an attempt to compete for consumer dollars. On one of the biggest retail weekends of the year.

“If you buy downtown or at a local business, 60 cents of that dollar stay in the community. Whereas, if you buy at a big box store, only 11 cents of that dollar stay in our community,” Amies said. “I think that our downtown businesses are focusing less on Black Friday and more on Small Business Saturday.”

According to Penny Warris, co-owner of Analog Books, the wider-reaching impact of local shopping dollars is another advantage to the surrounding communities.

“We’ll take a percentage of our sales for the day and we’ll promote a local fundraiser or the foodbank or something like that, and we find that our customers really appreciate that,” explained Warris.

She said that gives small businesses an edge over big box stores.

“(Shoppers) might save $2 on a book if we give them a 10 per cent discount, but if 30 per cent of our proceeds are going to the foodbank, then it pays back to the community.”

But, as retail analyst and author of the book Retail before during and after COVID-19 Bruce Winder explains, smaller businesses will always face an uphill battle when it comes to pricing.

“It might be a little bit harder on Small Business Saturday because people only have so much money,” he said. “And I think from their heart they want to spend on small businesses, but sometimes small businesses can’t hit the price points and the savings that the big box stores can offer, so I think it’s going to be difficult for them.

“They’re going to have to vote with their wallet instead of their hearts.”