Las Vegas shop owners encourage Small Business Saturday

For retailers like Ronald Corso, owner of 11th Street Records, shopping locally isn't just about building his business — it's about building community.

"When you shop locally, the money stays in the community," Corso said. "It circulates around and creates jobs for your neighbors and makes the city a better place to live."

Corso's store at 1023 Fremont St., on the corner of 11th Street, opened in April and sells vinyl records. It is also home to a recording studio. Corso is a musician who had worked at record stores and studios previously and saw that vinyl records were ready to make a comeback while much of the world was dropping off collections at thrift stores. But it wasn't just a prediction about the saleability of vinyl that led him to opening the store.

"A good friend of mine started the Neon Reverb festival, and when people ask me why I created the store, I say the same thing he said about the festival," Corso said. "I just wanted to live in the kind of city that had this kind of thing in it."

As shoppers prepare to descend on stores for Black Friday and eagerly click their way through Cyber Monday, a growing number of consumers have become aware of Small Business Saturday, Nov. 28. Originally created as an advertising campaign for American Express in 2010, the event has begun to take off on its own.

"I always shop locally whenever I can," said activist Justice Wyonne. "It's one of the better ways to ensure the health of your community."

Across the street from Corso's store, The Writer's Block, 1020 Fremont St., No. 100, opened last year on Small Business Saturday, and co-owner Scott Seeley is pleased with the store's growth as well as the neighborhood around it.

"We're growing slowly and steadily, and now we're pretty much exactly where I thought we'd be," Seeley said. "The dream would be to be way ahead of that, but I'm happy we're where we're at. When we opened, there was nothing around us — just a bunch of empty storefronts. Now there's 11th Street Records, PublicUs, and Chow just opened up next door to us."

Chow — so close that it shares the same address as The Writer's Block — is the second downtown restaurant created by Natalie Young, chef and owner of Eat, 707 Carson Ave. It specializes in Southern fried chicken and Chinese food.

The stores near Fremont and 11th streets mark the current edge of gentrification of the formerly run-down area.

"It's interesting to see how things have changed," Corso said. "(The area is) still pretty colorful, but it's not the wasteland it once was."

Some of that change may come from the literary events and free children's writing classes taking place at The Writer's Block.

"In terms of growing a literary community and our programs for kids, that part has been going very well," Seeley said. "I'm not going to be so bold as to say we're the central hub, but I feel like we're a significant contributor to the literary scene."

Downtown's small business owners tout the personal attention they provide for their customers, which they said can be hard to find in big-box retailers and chains.

"I think we help people find things they would never even have looked for if they hadn't talked to us," Seeley said. "It's the individualized attention we can provide that brings people back here."

Personalized service and community-building are ironically a big part of the business model of Rogue Toys, which has two locations at 616 Las Vegas Blvd. South and 2115 S. Rainbow Blvd.

"I'm not that person who has a store and just wants you to come in and buy things from me," said owner Steve Johnston. "We want you to come in and relive your youth and enjoy your experience."

To that end, he has created a number of special events for his customers, including a toy swapping event scheduled for 5 p.m. the third Saturday of each month.

"People can come in and trade toys they aren't interested in anymore with other collectors," Johnston said. "They can't sell them to each other, but we usually get pizza and drinks, and everyone swaps toys and has a good time."

The store makes no money from the trades, but there is the option to purchase toys from the store at a discount to trade with another collector.

Although the stores specialize in vintage and used toys, they do carry some new stock, particularly toys that are created and marketed for collectors.

"We don't carry everything. We're not trying to compete with Wal-Mart and Target," Johnston said. "We carry items that make the most sense for collectors, like the Star Wars The Black Series, which are 6-inch, heavily articulated figures geared towards collectors."

Johnston said that because of the upcoming new Star Wars film, about 30 percent of the stores' current sales are Star Wars items, which is about what he expected and stocked for.

"That's where our strengths are: in customer service and knowledge of product," Johnston said. "That and the quality of our merchandise in a friendly environment."

Several specialty toy collectors' groups meet at the stores, including the local branch of OG13, a G.I. Joe collectors' group, and Rogue Squadron, a Star Wars collectors' group.

Johnston said he doesn't see his direct competitors so much as rivals as he does peers, and he likes to foster communication and cooperation with the other stores, recommending where a collector might find an item he doesn't have and even cross-promoting with them.

"We're doing our 12 days of Christmas promotion again this year," Johnston said. "It's a 12-day scavenger hunt with items that need to be found in 12 stores, including my two and 10 other stores that sell toys, video games, sports cards, games and other pop culture items. Each store is donating items that can be won in the drawing at the end. Anyone who finds all 12 items is automatically qualified for the drawing. We're also doing a toy drive at the same time for Toys for Tots."

While Johnston does sell items online and on auction sites such as eBay, he tends to see those places as the real competition for local stores.

"We try to keep our prices competitive with online stores and encourage other stores to do the same," Johnston said. "That way, we have a better chance of putting money back into the community."

Corso concurs that shopping locally isn't just good for local businesses; it is good for the locality.

"It makes the town a cooler place," Corso said. "Supporting stuff that is awesome is the way you keep your town awesome and getting more awesome all the time."

For more information about Small Business Saturday, visit americanexpress.com/us/small-business/shop-small.

— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.