Summerville D.R.E.A.M. ( Downtown Restoration, Enahancement & Management) urges you to plan your Holiday Shopping carefully.  You may be one of the early birds out at the malls and the big box stores on Black Friday but on the following Saturday you want to shop local for Small Business Saturday. Held last year for the first time, Small Business Saturday – which falls on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend – is a national initiative encouraging consumers to shop at small businesses. It also was created specifically to recognize the importance of small businesses and their contributions to the economy, job creation and local communities According to American Express, small business merchants saw a 28 percent rise in sales volume during last year's Small Business Saturday, compared to the same day in 2009.?? This year some other big name companies, Facebook, Google and Twitter, among others, are joining with American Express to offer a free toolkit designed to help small business owners get their cash registers ringing this holiday season.??With an eye on boosting consumer interest in the initiative, FedEx recently announced it would give away $1 million in $25 Shop Small American Express gift cards for use on Small Business Saturday. Thirty thousand of the gift cards will be available, first-come, first-served, starting Nov. 1 on the FedEx Facebook page. FedEx will distribute an additional 10,000 gift cards directly to its customers.??American Express is giving its card members incentives by offering a $25 statement credit when they register their card and spend $25 or more on Small Business Saturday at any qualifying small business that accepts American Express.?? So mark your calendar for this year's Small Business Saturday which falls on November 26, 2011. It is a great time to visit your Historic Downtown Summerville merchants to see what special things they are carrying for Christmas.

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