ConnectPay is all about celebrating Main Street businesses. In this ongoing series, we’ll take an up-close look at the clients who inspire and motivate the ConnectPay team every day, by carrying forward the big heart and strong tradition of small business in America. In this client profile, we’re also highlighting Small Business Saturday, a holiday founded by American Express in 2010 to encourage consumers to “shop small.” This day is celebrated on the Saturday following Thanksgiving every year.
“Opening a small business helps the community stay connected and stay present in the moment,” says Samanta Ettore, who hails from Tuscany but now lives in Andover, Massachusetts. That’s exactly what Ettore had in mind when she opened up her store, Wine-Sense, in 2006. After working in Boston for seven years, she felt like she didn’t know her neighbors or have a strong connection to her community, and she wanted to change that.
Wine-Sense is a tiny shop — just 600 square feet — that sells “off the beaten path” bottles from small-scale producers and wine makers. Ettore is a big believer in Small Business Saturday, and she’s been celebrating it steadily for the last four or five years. She first became aware of it through a group called The 3/50 Project, which supports independent retailers and was boosting awareness for the holiday. While it’s consistently been a success at Wine-Sense, it really took off last year, in part due to the aftermath of the devastating gas explosions that occured in Andover a few months prior. Many businesses were forced to temporarily close, and residents had to evacuate their homes for months at a time, so when small businesses were back open, people were immensely grateful to have a place to go and a reason to celebrate. “This tragedy brought us together as a community,” Ettore says, “which gave me incentive to go even stronger this year.”
As a way to say thank you to her community for supporting the store through that difficult time and continuing to support it since, she’s offering promotions surrounding Small Business Saturday, which falls on Saturday, November 30 this year. For the week leading up to the holiday, she’s offering a 15% discount on the special six-packs of wines she curates for the holidays (one red, one white, and one mixed) “so people who are entertaining don’t have to go crazy looking for the ideal pairing.” The six-packs will come replete with a free tote and tasting notes so her customers “can show off to their guests that they know all about wines,” she adds with a laugh. And starting on Small Business Saturday through the following Saturday, Ettore will offer free delivery for new and returning members of the wine club she runs (in which she hand-selects four seasonal wines for customers, for three months at a time).
Wine-Sense will be decorated with the buttons and balloons Ettore receives in her Small Business Saturday event kit from American Express. When Ettore signed up to participate this year, she requested additional kits (they also come with posters, stickers and more to drum up enthusiasm from the community) so she could drop them off at some of her favorite small business in town “so they can be part of the movement, too.” She’ll leave one at her local Pilates studio, the hairdresser next door, the fitness center in her complex. “I have a feeling this year will be strong,” she says. “I think that people are paying attention now.”
For Ettore, Small Business Saturday is a reminder that real-life connection is at the heart of running a small business. “Spending time with my clients and talking to them about what they’re cooking and how I can pair that meal for them, or asking about their children or their pets — that is keeping us connected and in the present.”
