Consumers didn’t forget their mom and pop stores during the big holiday shopping weekend.
According to numbers just released by the National Federation of Independent Business, consumers spent $5.7 billion on “Small Business Saturday,” a 3.5 percent uptick on last year.
The event, sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday was created by American Express in 2010. Since then it has grown in scope partly because the credit card company offers a $10 credit to those shopping in support of their local small businesses.
The Federation also noted that awareness jumped from 67 percent to 71 percent this year.
President Obama shopped in his local bookstore with his daughters on Saturday to help draw attention to the event.
According to the organizers, 166 companies signed up to support the day including FedEx, FourSquare, Twitter and USPS.