It may have been blustery and snowy in the Fox Valley on Saturday, but Batavia resident Erin Hetland thought it was important to get out and support local businesses.
“I think, especially in this community, we have a lot of great small businesses that have been here and established for a really long time and so, especially on Third Street, I love to come out and shop,” Hetland said as she made a purchase at Graham’s Fine Chocolates in Geneva on Small Business Saturday, a national event with many stores participating throughout the Aurora area.
“This is a way of giving back to the community and taking a stand against some of the corporate greed that’s out there,” Hetland said of supporting small businesses. “I’ve been a loyal Graham’s customer for many decades.”
Business owners like Diane Dewell, owner of Industrial Treasures, which has been open in St. Charles for over four years, said Small Business Saturday is an important day “for mom-and-pop stores around the country.”
“We can’t really compete with the big-box stores and we have something different to offer – personal service, individually-selected items, things that you can’t find anywhere else,” Dewell said. “The majority of businesses in the country are small businesses and make up a large part of the local economy. Local people like to shop small and we get a lot of people from out of town who are visiting.”
Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express back in 2010, and continues to find itself placed just after Black Friday.
According to the American Express website, Small Business Saturday “has helped generate over $210 billion in reported sales” for small businesses over its history and continues to promote consumers shopping at small, local stores.
Shannon Peppeard, owner of the Pep Line, a home goods store in St. Charles, said that she and another local business owner “created the Small Business Saturday here in St. Charles” years ago.
“We started with a number of local businesses around the area because we didn’t have something like this in St. Charles and did it for a couple years on our own and then the St. Charles Business Alliance asked to kind of take it over and give it a bigger platform,” Peppeard said. “We met with them and this is the second year they’ve been taking it over for St. Charles.”
Peppeard said “the community has embraced” small businesses.
“I can’t tell you how many times people come in – not just on Small Business Saturday, but it might be the first time on Small Business Saturday and have come and definitely supported the shop through the year,” she said. “People realize the importance of the collective influence – they tell me they came here deliberately instead of something like the Pottery Barn because they wanted to support your business and everything you bring to the community.”
In Aurora, business owner Juan Almaraz of Dapper Brews Coffee said he wanted to be part of Small Business Saturday “because we live in our community, we earn in our community and we spend in our community and it’s very important to keep the local economy vibrant.”
“It’s been a bad day weather-wise today but there have been local folks in the area who have been in and know it’s Small Business Saturday and came in just to spend locally,” he said on Saturday. “They’ve bought gift cards, bags of coffee for folks as stocking stuffers – folks are aware of it.”
Joanne Scara of Batavia shops in St. Charles at the Trend + Relic store on Small Business Saturday on Nov. 29, 2025. (David Sharos/For The Beacon-News)
Steve Warrenfeltz, owner of Kiss the Sky record shop in Batavia who has been a small business owner for 30 years, said “anything that draws attention to small businesses is really important.”
“The more that organizations focus on small businesses, the more successful we’re going to be,” he said. “Here in Batavia, we’re a prime example of the impact the Chamber of Commerce and MainStreet Batavia have on the businesses that are here. Look at our downtown – it’s become small business heaven.”
Joanne Scara of Batavia was shopping in St. Charles at the Trend + Relic store which was participating in Small Business Saturday and said she loves “to support small business. It really makes up the town.”
“There’s a lot of businesses out there but it’s the small ones – as a customer, I always like to know if there is a story behind something,” Scara said. “When the maker is there or the person that bought that merchandise, I like to know the story behind it. It just makes it more personal and down home. It makes you feel like you’re a part of a real community.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
