Holiday Gift Guide 2020

The holiday season is an important one for small businesses every year, and it figures to take on heightened importance in 2020. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in late 2019 and early 2020 hit small businesses especially hard, with many being forced to close their facilities to customers in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading. Estimates regarding the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on small businesses varied, but many small business owners were

forced to let go employees as they confronted steep declines in revenue. A ZenBusiness survey of more than 1,000 small business founders, senior managers and decision makers found that 37 percent of small businesses that employ between 11 and 25 people were considering laying off more than one-fifth of their workforce. As small businesses face difficult challenges, it’s no surprise that many consumers want to support locally owned small businesses this holiday season. Such support not only

can help small businesses, but also can help to revitalize local communities.

Shop online Online shopping has traditionally been dominated by big box retailers. However, many small businesses increased their e-commerce capabilities to generate revenue. Shoppers concerned about shopping in person this holiday season should explore the delivery and curbside pickup options available at locally owned small businesses. Even businesses that have

not traditionally been allowed to deliver, such as breweries and winer-

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ers unlimited online shopping options. continued on page 2

and support local and stock up on some great holiday deals at Duluth Pack.

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Local

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Purchase gift cards

Gift cards take the guesswork out of holiday shopping, and such cards are easily shipped or even emailed to loved ones. ThatÕs a significant benefit during the 2020 holiday season, when delivery times are expected to be lengthy. Gift cards to local businesses simplify holiday shopping, support small businesses and help shoppers avoid potential delivery delays.

Share your experience

Word-of-mouth is vital to small businesses at any time, and can be especially valuable as these companies try to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak. Holiday shoppers can share their experiences with local businesses via social media.

Share information about the lengths local small businesses have gone to in regard to safety measures, order fulfillment and their delivery and pickup efforts. Such sharing may compel neighbors and friends to follow your lead and provide vital support to local businesses in need this holiday season. Small businesses are the backbone of many communities, and the holiday season provides a great opportunity to support such firms as they look to recover from a difficult year.

The history of Black Friday

year-end sales. Retailers and consumers rallied around low-cost “doorbusters” and other discounted prices. Interestingly enough, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Black Friday really hasn’t been the most lucrative day for retailers over the years. In fact, greater profits and larger crowds are often seen on the last Saturday preceding Christmas.

Shopping weekend evolves

Black Friday marks the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. Come Black Friday, shoppers strive to get the lowest prices on gifts for their loved ones.

Much of the focus of Black Friday is on finding the best deals, but it can be interesting to take a breath and learn how this phenomenon developed and how it has evolved over the years.

‘Black Friday’

The term “black Friday” was originally associated with gold prices and manip-

ulation on the part of speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk. This scandal occurred in September 1869. Commodity prices plummeted 50 percent as a result, and the term “black Friday” was coined to refer to that drop.

The phrase “black Friday” also became famous for all the wrong reasons in 1966. Philadelphia police used it to refer to the Friday traffic jams and crowding in downtown stores from tourists and shoppers who flooded into the city in advance of the Army-Navy football

game held the Saturday after Thanksgiving each year. Bigger crowds and rowdiness contributed to long hours and stressful shifts for local police.

Black Friday reinvented

The retail industry started using the term “Black Friday” in the late 1980s. Spin doctors turned previously negative connotations into positive ones by associating the phrase with stores turning a profit and moving accounting ledgers from “red to black” thanks to big

While Black Friday may have been the catalyst, in recent years shoppers have made the entire weekend of Black Friday a lucrative one for retailers. Many stores now open on Thanksgiving and extend sales through the entire weekend. Small Business Saturday and Sunday promote patronizing momand-pop stores. Cyber Monday emerged when online shopping became a popular way to grab deals, and it marks the close of the opening weekend of the holiday shopping season. In 2017, Black Friday weekend attracted 174 million shoppers who spent an average of $335.47, according to the NRF.

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ways to make gift cards more personal

When in doubt while holiday shopping, go with a gift card. Gift cards provide a convenient way to ensure people of all ages ultimately get something special.

According to a 2016 survey by the gift card sales tool CardCash, gift cards are a $127 billion market that keeps growing. Physical gift cards have been growing at an annual rate of 6 percent, but digital gift cards are growing at an annual rate of 200 percent. The financial resource The Motley Fool indicates that, during the 2018 holiday shopping season, people buying gift cards purchased roughly four cards each, with an average value of $45 per card.

Advantages to shopping locally

Shoppers are often encouraged to support local businesses by looking to them to fill our needs. Small businesses are not just integral parts of communities, employing millions across the country, they are also operations that fund the very communities they service.

enable giftgivers to personalize cards with their own photos. Shoppers also can choose from pre-design galleries to present a card that has a little more flair. The gift cards can then be tied to specific occasions or holidays.

CHOOSE A POPULAR STORE

Rather than buying the first gift card you see, select a card for a specific store your loved one likes. For example, if the person is an outdoors enthusiast, a gift card to L.L. Bean may be perfect. If he or she wants to be the next top chef, money toward Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma is fitting.

WRAP IT IN A UNIQUE WAY

Don’t just give the gift card in an envelope; find a unique way to wrap it. After all, that will make the gift card a gift within a gift. Find a small gift box and wrap the gift card as you would any other gift. Or make it even more exciting by designing a scavenger hunt with clues on where to find the hidden gift card.

ASSEMBLE A GIFT BASKET

Add a few extra treats to a basket with the gift card that ties into a theme. If the gift card is for a boating or fishing retailer, place tackle, a floating key ring or a dry storage bag in the gift basket.

ADD A SWEET MESSAGE

Many people enjoy the convenience of storing digital gift card information on their phones. Even though gift cards are any easy option, like giving cash, they may seem like impersonal gifts. However, gift givers can explore these ways to add a personal touch to the gift card. 1 2 3 4 5

Attach a greeting card and share a few sentiments about why the gift card was chosen. This will help make the gift more personal and show that time was taken to select the item.

The National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics reassures that gift cards are one of the most popular entries on holiday wish lists each year. Making the gift a bit more personal can increase the enjoyment factor even further.

Efforts to promote shopping local appear to be working. According to the Commonwealth Financial Group, over the last several years there has been a shift in consumer purchasing behavior marked by a preference among consumers to support locally owned shops and stores over big-box retailers and even online shopping.

The following are some key reasons why shopping locally not only benefits small business owners, but also the communities they call home and the customers they serve.

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Job creation

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies says local businesses create the majority of economic growth. They employ millions of Americans by creating roughly two-thirds of private sector jobs. Local business owners also tend to hire people who represent the demographics of the communities where the business is located, which may include historically underserved populations.

Diversity of products

Local stores tend to diversify their products and services to meet the needs of the local communities, whereas chain stores often stock their shelves based on national demands.

Personalized service

A small business owner may be more inclined to go to great lengths to make customers happy because the long-term success of the business depends on customers becoming repeat customers.

Personal connection

Knowing the people behind a business facilitates a connection not easily achieved with other companies. Customers may celebrate when a favorite business succeeds and look to spread the word about that business because they feel like they played a positive role in its success.

Why are Christmas colors red and green?

Many people may not get in the holiday spirit without decorations and all the trimmings. Chances are strong that if you have containers full of items just waiting to see the light of day again this holiday season, those items are red or green or some combination thereof.

Red and green have become the traditional colors of Christmas, just as blue and white symbolizes Chanukah. But how did this color palette come to evolve?

Just like many traditions of Christmas, the red and green scheme has origins that pre-date the Christian celebration. Christmas has borrowed from many of the customs of winter solstice celebrations of ancient peoples, including the Celts. Ancient Celtic people revered holly plants, believing they brought beauty and good fortune in the middle of winter — a time when the landscape is normally bleak and holly plants thrive and stand out. Celts would regularly bring in sprigs of holly and decorate their homes with the plants, which feature shiny, serrated leaves and bright, red berries, as a way to guarantee a prosperous new year. Holly also came to be associated with the crown of thorns Jesus Christ was forced to wear during his crucifixion.

The custom of using red and green continued into the 14th century. Dr. Spike Bucklow, a research scientist at the University of Cambridge, says red and green also were used to paint

medieval rood screens, which were partitions installed in churches to separate the congregation from the priest and altar. Dr. Bucklow notes that Victorians also extended the association of these colors as a physical boundary to another boundary: the marking of the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one at Christmastime.

While red and green had associations with Christmas in early times through holly and other sources, the connection was perhaps best solidified thanks to a man named Haddon Sundblom. Sundblom was an artist commissioned in 1931 by the Coca-Cola company to create an image of Santa Claus for the company’s upcoming holiday ads. Until this point, versions of Santa were rarely consistent, with his clothing vacillating between green, blue and red. He also wasn’t the plump, jolly fellow associated with Christmas as we know him today, but rather thin and elf-like. Sundblom portrayed him as a chubby man wearing red robes, likely as a nod to Coca-Cola’s own red logo, even though the company denies the connection. Santa was featured in front of a green background. The ads proved popular and Sundblom’s Santa became the preferred depiction. Santa’s red robes perfectly complemented the green background and other green components of the holiday, such as Christmas trees and holly, that already had been solidified as Christmas imagery.

Color plays a strong role in creating

The Coca-Cola company’s 1931 holiday ad campaign featured this style of Santa Claus, created by Artist Haddon Sundblom, whose inspiration came from Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” where Santa is described as a plump old man whose “cheeks were like roses, and his nose like a cherry.”

Christmas nostalgia. Red and green are put on vivid display throughout the season.