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- November 27, 2024
Delmar Main Street is bringing back its Holiday Expo and small business pitch competition for a second consecutive year at Delmar DivINe on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The nonprofit, which seeks to provide economic revitalization to the Delmar corridor from Taylor Avenue to the city limits, is looking to tap into Small Business Saturday, an event first marketed by American Express in 2010 as a way to support and encourage shopping with small or local shops.
“On Delmar we don’t have a lot of retail businesses, so we’re bringing all the retail into one location,” said Delmar Main Street Vice President Lisa Potts. “We had about 60 vendors last year, people selling cookies, candies, cakes, clothes, you name it, people were selling it.”
Delmar Main Street will host a pitch competition for small businesses before the Holiday Expo. Potts explained that it grew out of a desire from the Metropolitan St. Louis Community Reinvestment Association, a collection of more than 30 local financial institutions, to give back and support small and local ventures.
“We just want to be able to help give businesses a jump-start, if they are a new business,” Potts said. “Maybe they want to try out a new product [or] expand. Sometimes you just need a little seed money to get over the hump.”
This year’s competition will feature six businesses vying for a top prize of $6,000, slightly more than last year’s $4,500 for the winner. Second and third place will take home $3,000 and $1,500, respectively. Potts acknowledged it may not be an astronomical dollar figure, but the unrestricted funding can still make a large difference for a small, local business.
“It’s money that you just don’t have,” she said. “And now you have this influx of cash to be able to invest back into your company.”
