Following the Infamous “Black Friday” Tradition, Santa Clarita small businesses are urging the community to do shopping at local mom-and-pop stores in support of Small Business Saturday.

With Black Friday attracting more than 100 million shoppers nationwide every year, local small businesses struggle during the notorious shopping season.

Small Business Saturday, a nationwide shopping holiday, originated in 2010 when American small businesses were failing due to a recessed economy.

Related:Support Local Santa Clarita Valley Shops On Small Business Saturday

In response to the national recession, Small Business Saturday sought to alleviate financial struggles by urging Americans to “Shop Small.”

The Shop Small campaign took off just after one year from it’s launch and was passed unanimously by the Senate in 2011 as an officially recognized day.

This Saturday, Santa Clarita small business owners look for support from their community to compete with chain stores.

Matt Browning, the owner of Mend Cryotherapy, said bringing in local business helped everybody.

“Shopping at a local business, you’re helping to support the community,” said Browning. “You’re helping the people that live here opposed to a large corporation or someone outside of the area.”

Greg Amsler, Co-owner at Salt Creek Grille, agreed, drawing on his 18 years as a business owner in the Santa Clarita area.

“We’re independently owned, my wife and I and a partner, we’ve been here since 1999,” said Amsler. “We live in the community. We think it’s important to live in the community, to give back to the community.”

The importance of keeping money in the Santa Clarita Valley can’t be understated, he said.

“I think it’s important to support the local business, the mom-and-pop (stores), the independents,” Amsler said. “The revenue we drawn in here stays in this community. We try to use as many locally sourced suppliers as we can.”

For more on where to shop this holiday season, browse KHTS AM-1220’s Business Directory.

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