Small Business Saturday Shop RI (SBSShopRI) is the RIDDC’s flagship initiative to support small businesses in Rhode Island. Many of our business class participants ultimately take their talents to the SBSShopRI stage each November. Additionally, vendors that are not part of the RIDDC community are still able to participate in the RIDDC business classes as part of their vendor status.
The Small Business Saturday Shop RI (SBS Shop RI) committee announced the official launch of this year’s event, scheduled on Saturday, November 27, 2021. For the fifth year, the event will be held in-person at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, RI from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Watch for news of the event, which may include opportunities for new vendors to join those who participated virtually last year, and will return this year, resulting in a full roster of vendors already.
Steadily building on its previous years’ success, SBS Shop RI Co-Chair Sue Babin reports, “We’ve been thrilled with the feedback we’ve had since we started this event, especially post-Covid. Having the small business community asking in July when they can reserve their space is very encouraging. This continues to be very rewarding because it has been a labor of love as much as it is a boon to small business owners.”
Introduced in 2017, SBS Shop RI is the first event of its kind nationally. Small business owners are now under one roof for the one-day event, creating a very convenient holiday shopping pop-up mall. The vendors range from artists, Social Venture Enterprises, Farm Fresh RI, veterans, and minority-owned businesses and represent a diverse population and a wide range of unique gift ideas. More than 1,000 shoppers attended the event the first year, with the number doubling to more than 2,000 in 2019, pre-COVID.
Members of the RI Developmental Disabilities Council, Veterans Business Outreach Centers, The Center for Women and Enterprise and the Small Business Administration pioneered the effort as well as provide teaching and one-on-one professional business counseling to support the participants.