Sales on Small Business Saturday proved to be no turkey.
Holiday shoppers spent roughly $5.7 billion at small businesses, a 3.6 percent increase from last year, according to an industry group for the mom-and-pop shops.
The increase stood in sharp contrast the 13.2 percent decline in retail sales on Black Friday — a drop experts pegged to more aggressive promotions by retailers on Thanksgiving.
Overall, sales on the holiday and day after rose 2.3 percent from last year, according to ShopperTrak, a retail industry group — making the small business sales increase stand out that much more.
One Manhattan small business, Chelsea-based Story, says it doubled foot traffic and revenue from last year.
Owner Rachel Shechtman, who changes the store’s concept every four to eight weeks, says she pulled out all the stops to turn the day into a block party — including inviting a host of food trucks to attract attention and draw consumers to the store.
“The misconception is that small business [merchandise] is expensive,” Shechtman told The Post. “There are things here for $3, and 50 percent of the store items are under $50.”
Designers turned Story into a holiday-themed house, featuring rooms packed with a total of 3,000 items.
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.
While it is hard to differentiate dollars spent at small businesses generally from those spent because of the national promotion, awareness of the event jumped to 71 percent this year from 67 percent last year, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
The $5.7 billion in sales rung up at small businesses was spent by those who were aware of the event, according to AmEx and the NFIB.