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Inkwood Books among retailers banking on 'Small Business Saturday'

 
Inkwood Books qwner Stefani Beddingfield poses in her new shop location 1809 N Tampa Street in Tampa Heights. The store will open to the public on Saturday (Nov. 25, 2017). It had been open for 26 years in Tampa's Hyde Park area. Photo by Alli Knothe.
Inkwood Books qwner Stefani Beddingfield poses in her new shop location 1809 N Tampa Street in Tampa Heights. The store will open to the public on Saturday (Nov. 25, 2017). It had been open for 26 years in Tampa's Hyde Park area. Photo by Alli Knothe.
Published Nov. 24, 2017

TAMPA — By Tuesday evening, at least 50 cardboard boxes were still stacked against the shop's wall, each labeled clearly with a black sharpie.

"Biographies"

"Pets"

"Fiction"

"Music"

While the front of the store and new children's section was mostly in place, there was plenty still left to do at Inkwood Books on North Tampa Street. The small independent bookstore moved this fall after 26 years in South Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood. It is opening on Saturday at its new home in the small business magnet that is emerging in Tampa Heights.

It's no coincidence that the store celebrates its reopening two days after the Thanksgiving holiday.

After all, it's Small Business Saturday, one of the biggest shopping days of the holiday season. Since its founding by American Express in 2010, the event has grown in popularity and is recognized by the United States Congress as a day to celebrate and highlight locally-owned small businesses.

"It's a way to bring attention to the diverse communities across our country," said Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, spokesperson for American Express's Small Business Saturday. It doesn't stop at retail shops, she said, but is an opportunity for everything from cycling studios to chiropractors, food trucks and mom and pop restaurants, your local corner store or antique shop."

More than 71 million people across the country will shop on Saturday, and an estimated 76 percent of them specifically will patronize local businesses like Inkwood, the National Retail Federation reports. It's the third busiest day of the five-day holiday shopping weekend, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, respectively.

Inkwood Books owner Stefani Beddingfield said that small businesses thrive in up-and-coming or otherwise more affordable areas that consumers might not automatically think of, such as the Heights, Ybor City or Carrollwood. In fact, the Carrollwood Area Business Association is using the day to launch a "connector" web site for its members: shop-tampa-bay.com.

In East Hillsborough, independent retailers such as Dog Gone Holistic, with locations in FishHawk and Riverview, plan to offer Small Business Saturday specials to customers.

Beddingfield urges people to forget about Yelp, turn off the GPS, and allow themselves to wander away from the mall, their big box stores or Amazon and instead seek something unexpected, like a refurbished typewriter, a book from an author you've never heard of, or a new piece of street art that inspires you.

Inkwood will welcome two local authors for book signings, while her neighbor Gaze Hot Yoga marks its one-year anniversary by offering a free 9:30 a.m. class, followed by a handful of local vendors selling crafts, vinyl records and locally-produced juices.

Neighborhoods throughout the region will hold their own small business celebrations, including a Holiday Shop Hop featuring about 25 Seminole Heights businesses.

There are three big reasons to shop small, said organizer Elizabeth Graham, of Forever Beautiful Salon & Wine Spa. Dollars spent at small businesses tend to stay within that community or area, she said, while community stores can offer "more personal attention" as well as unique items you can't find at big box stores, or wouldn't think to look for online.

"We're like Cheers," she said. "You go into our store and we'll remember your name."

Contact Alli Knothe at hillsnews@tampabay.com.