Small businesses hope to see a big turnout for ‘Small Business Saturday’

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - Today is Black Friday, and tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, and shopping small has a huge impact on our local Arizona businesses.

Frankie Piña is the owner of AZ Life Apparel, a shop that focuses on everything Arizona. “Each design we have has a story behind it, and not only that it’s created and designed locally as well,” he said.

Piña says he started in 2018 out of a garage, printing shirts, building the website, putting them online, and shipping them. Then, nearly five years after outgrowing that space, he’s opening a shop in Arrowhead Mall in Glendale. “I want somebody to be able to when they wear something, to be a conversation starter,” Piña said.

Black Friday deals bring out all kinds of shoppers, but his designs bring in the customers. “We came in for Black Friday today, so just got here and saw this Arizona little small shop and thought we’d stop in I’m from Washington so my grandsons will love these Arizona t-shirts,” said shopper Jackie Berry.

“I feel like sometimes those stores have unique styles you don’t really see at the big brand companies,” said another shopper, Jordyn Williams.

According to a LendingTree survey, 42% of Americans plan to shop on Small Business Saturday. However, that’s down from 49% last year.

Piña says being a local business owner is not easy, but it’s worth it, especially when the shirts he carries in stores also remind him to keep pushing forward. “It says don’t give up. And I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to give up, but you just have to keep going and pushing forward,” he said.

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