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A Novel Idea and other small businesses on East Passyunk Ave. participated in Small Business Saturday. (Emily Neil/WHYY)
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Storeowners along South Philadelphia’s East Passyunk Avenue marked Small Business Saturday with deals and discounts, inviting residents to shop local this holiday season.
The avenue is “the longest stretch of independently-owned businesses in the city of Philadelphia,” said Bill Rhoda, co-owner of Philly Typewriter and co-chair of business improvement and relations with the East Passyunk Business Improvement District.
“This is Small Business Saturday central for Philadelphia and the neighborhood and the community that has built up here over the past decade and before has really been blossoming, and the relationships between the businesses have been getting stronger and stronger,” he said. “All of us together are building this community and being supported by that community has really elevated East Passyunk.”
Small Business Saturday is a nationwide tradition founded by American Express by 2010. The day offers local business owners an opportunity to finish the year strong.
“Small Business Saturday and [sales] in December is something that can make up two, three months of profits and can really help,” said Alex Schneider, co-owner of independent bookstore A Novel Idea, one of the more than 50 shops and boutiques on Passyunk Avenue.
After a slow summer and fall, Schneider said the foot traffic Saturday was encouraging as they look to end the year “on a really high note.” Roadwork on East Passyunk Avenue and other factors, including inflation and cautious consumers, have all impacted small businesses’ bottom line, Schneider said.
“We feel wonderful when folks come in and are willing and able to spend their money with us,” he said.
Kristina Gaglianese, owner of August Moon Boutique, said she depends on profits from the holiday season. This year is particularly crucial, she said, since her clothing business has been hard hit by tariffs.
“Not only have costs increased, of course, but even some of our vendors are not shipping things,” she said. “We’re not getting certain products, or it’s getting stuck at the border and things are delayed … It’s changing constantly, so it just puts us up and down on a roller coaster, which in some cases is to be expected as a business owner, but it feels like there’s one thing after another.”
Sage Carson, who lives in North Philadelphia, came to East Passyunk on Saturday because of the “great concentration of local small businesses.” She bought books at A Novel Idea and holiday gifts at Occasionette.
She said the plethora of independent retailers in Philadelphia is one of the reasons she moved here from Washington, D.C., where the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered a lot of small businesses.
“Philly’s such a great space for folks that just want to start something that they feel good about,” she said. “And I want to be able to support that. We just went to the bulk supply shop and got a bunch of stuff, and the people that run it seem genuinely passionate about what they’re doing, and I’d rather spend my money on that than billionaires.”
Gaglianese said that her fellow small business owners in East Passyunk are “a support system.”
“As a women-owned business, I definitely feel a sense of community,” she said. “As a business owner, you don’t really have co-workers, so it’s nice to run next door or wherever, and joke with each other and just have that banter, because we need each other.”
A Novel Idea marks their seven-year anniversary on the avenue on Monday. Scheider said in that time they’ve seen firsthand how the network of small businesses in the neighborhood “support each other.”
“The money that goes into small businesses goes back into the communities more than anything else,” he said. “And I think this area needs it. Philadelphia needs it. So it’s something that’s always at the forefront of our minds.”
For Rhoda, that sense of connections extends to customers and neighborhood residents.
“When we’re buying online constantly, we’re not talking to anybody, and with us, with the neighborhood here, you build up that relationship, you build up that connection,” he said. “And it’s so important right now for people to stay connected with each other, and small businesses do that. They keep up those relationships with one another and promote that community.”