Small Business Saturday An Economic Hit In Kentucky

by STU JOHNSON – 

CREDIT KENTUCKY RETAIL FEDERATION

The state director of the National Federation of Independent Business says community businesses saw a significant spike in sales on Saturday.

Nationally, NFIB reports shoppers spent a record $17.8 billion on Small Business Saturday.  NFIB State Director Tom Underwood says the uptick went beyond traditional retail merchants. “But what we saw was a lot of services and particularly restaurants on Small Business Saturday.  Cause people shopped small and they ate small,” said Underwood.

Underwood says it points to a strong economy in Kentucky.  “We are well and fully out of the dark days of the great recession and our folks are looking forward to expanding their local community businesses.”

Underwood says the traditional definition of small business is a company with 50 or less employees.  He says there are more than 275,000 Kentucky small businesses with no employees with a sole proprietor.