San Jose shops hopeful for Small Business Saturday shopping traffic

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — As Black Friday ends, local businesses are banking on Small Business Saturday, including Black & Brown in San Jose.

“We do clothing, shoes, accessories, focus on vintage and sustainability,” said owner Monisha Murray.

Murray’s store has been around for close to 20 years. She says that for them, Small Business Saturday has become an event.

“Fill up a brown bag, it’s $10. It should be pretty, pretty wild tomorrow,” she said on Friday.

The event will have a DJ, coffee vendor and more activities that have kept loyal customers coming back.

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“It’s like a love feeling. You know, I see a lot of kids that I’ve seen over the 20 years that are still coming to us and just are super supportive and excited about it,” Murray said.

All of it a much-needed boost for small businesses like Black & Brown.

The City of San Jose says it’s working to keep the Small Business Saturday boost throughout the holiday season and beyond.

The city launched the Holiday San Jose campaign, highlighting more than 300 businesses in 12 shopping districts.

“When you shop local, you keep your dollars here with San Jose families. Who that in turn can invest in the community, invest in their children’s education, invest in health care, housing and keep the economy here locally strong with a large middle class,” said Mayor Matt Mahan.

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Brandon Quintanilla is the founder of Culture Night Market.

“Culture Night Market has activated landmarks and public activations all throughout San Jose for the last couple of years in response to COVID-19, helping small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs and just kind of giving guidance to people that want to get their business off the ground,” he said.

This year, the event is taking advantage of San Jose’s Christmas in the Park, hosting 35 micro small businesses just across the street from the holiday event for the next two weekends.

Quintanilla says the timing of Small Business Saturday couldn’t be better.

“Get out the house, bring the family, bring your loved ones,” Quintanilla said. “Take a stroll, hop on the new trolley, come to Christmas in the park, come support the small businesses. It goes so much farther, I promise you.”