A straw poll of Main Street business owners and managers indicates that many Seal Beach businesses did well on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 29.
Small Business Saturday was founded in 2010 by American Express. The event takes place every year on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.
“That’s what it was,” said Rob Jahncke, owner of Javatinis Espresso Seal Beach.
Sales were up 30 percent from last year. Jahncke said he didn’t see it coming.
“It was fantastic,” he said.
He speculated that the increased sales was the result of the Seal Beach Tree Lighting ceremony that was held Saturday afternoon and Small Business Saturday.
Not everyone enjoyed increased sales. Lisa McHenry of Knock Knock Toys said business was down this past Saturday, but business was up the Friday before. “So go figure,” McHenry said.
Mac-fusion sales weren’t brisk, either. “Mac-fusion did almost exactly the same as last year,” said Marilyn Halpin. “Our Black Friday numbers were a bit down as well. Although we had a record breaking November overall as far as how many Repair check-ins we had! We can’t complain.”
Other Main Street businesses, however, had stories similar to Jahncke’s. Liz Sontag of the ellison rd. women’s clothing store said both the Seal Beach and Long Beach outlets did well. Sontag said people were “super excited” to not have to shop at a mall.
“The nice weather really helped,” Sontag said. According to Sontag, sales at elison rd. were better this year than last. She attributed the increased sales to both the weather, which she believed was better this year, and to elison rd. offering better deals to customers this year.
Brooke Reid of the Harvey Girls store also mentioned that customers were less than enthusiastic about shopping malls.
She said Small Business Saturday was great. “Customers were telling us …. and other stores that they are sick of mall shopping and the insanity that comes with this weekend,” Reid said.
“Even Main Street’s Black Friday was awesome,” Reid said.
Jennifer Stephen of Joie de Vivre said business was wonderful. “We were busy pretty much all day,” Stephen said. She said sales were up 30 percent from last year.
Stephen attributed the sales increase to the Small Business Saturday event itself.
“This year, customers were making a point of telling me they were here because of Small Business Saturday,” Stephen said.
Caity Brunjes, assistant manager at Bay Hardware, said the store sold $300 more this year that last year.
Kristen Dew of Up, Up and Away Kites said Small Business Saturday was “super busy. People were just happy to come in and shop.” Dew did not have information about last year’s sales at the shop.
