North Jersey shops try to lure customers offline on Small Business Saturday

Small businesses around New Jersey tried Saturday to squeeze some more pennies out of shoppers — and keep them from finding better deals online — before the end of the first official weekend of the holiday shopping season.

Retailers told NorthJersey.com that the personalized experience they offer shoppers is the biggest reason customers should shop local instead of at big-box stores or on sites like Amazon.

“We’re excellent at matching a child with a book that they may not know they want to read,” said Jim Morgan, owner of the Curious Reader in downtown Glen Rock. “That’s what we offer that’s different.”

Steve Corbo, of Corbo Jewelers in Rutherford, said his customers get the benefit of tweaks his store can offer to a new ring or bracelet that can be done in person.

“If you have an issue with an item, you don’t have to send it back somewhere,” he said.

Story continues below the gallery. 

Stressing a less-faceless shopping experience works for some individual stores, but nationwide the picture is bleak for brick-and-mortar shops. Traffic at stores fell 2.1% on Black Friday compared to last year, while online sales that day totaled a record $7.4 billion, according to the Associated Press.

After years of internet sales creeping upward, 2019 marked the first year the total market share of online U.S. retail sales was higher than general merchandise sales at shops, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

The department's October report shows internet sales accounting for 12% of total sales, compared to 11.2% for general merchandise, which does not include spending on cars and at restaurants.

Small businesses hoping for a boost on what’s now called Small Business Saturday — an annual event created by American Express in 2010 — said the credit card company’s marketing ploy didn’t necessarily lead to a flood of new customers.

“It’s not as busy as we all would hope it to be,” Corbo said. “There is some activity. We’ve had people in the store. It’s difficult to compete with the big boxes and the malls.”

Mary Murdoch runs J.T. Murdoch Shoes, a New Jersey institution since 1888 that opened in Newark before moving to East Orange, and then to its current location on Bloomfield Avenue in Bloomfield. Murdoch said Black Friday was the store’s busiest in years, but it was quieter on Saturday.

“I’m not going to say we’re slow, but they’re not breaking the doors down,” she said.

Consumer surveys show 66 million people intended to shop Saturday, almost half the number of potential Black Friday shoppers, according to the National Retail Federation.

Terrence T. McDonald is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: mcdonaldt@northjersey.com Twitter: @terrencemcd 

More New Jersey news

History:Paterson’s Bacon & Graham, Inc.: The tale of a clever woman and an imaginary man

Comeback:Toys R Us opens 'new' kind of store, with its first US location in Garden State Plaza