Throughout the year I greatly expanded my media writing style. Using various different writing styles to express opinions and news. The convergence lab allowed me to use new styles that I became more familiar with throughout the year. 
The busiest shopping weekend of the year spilled over to Cyber Monday on November 27th, but not all companies involved in these special sale days reaped the benefits of a selling boom.
Amazon was the biggest player in this holiday shopping weekend and received 64 million orders over the four day shopping weekend. The online store made over 6.6 billion dollars this season.
Students here on the Salve Regina campus report that a number of them shop on Amazon, but only a small number of them shopped over the sale weekend. Even fewer of these students knew about Small Business Saturday at all.
“Amazon has everything,” said Marco Mongelli, a freshman at Salve Regina University. Mongelli is a student who online shopped during the Cyber Monday sales, and went out on Small Business Saturday but did not purchase anything.
Small businesses had an alright day, according to CNBC Business. No matter how well the event went, it pales in comparison when put next to the weekend that Amazon and other major retailers had.
On November 25th, 108 million shoppers went to small businesses for the American Express sponsored day. A rough total of 12.9 billion dollars was spent. This number is more than what Amazon made over the whole weekend, but these profits are divided by the nearly 29 million small businesses within the country.
Amazon’s numbers went up by 16.5% from last year’s Thanksgiving weekend, but the numbers for Small Business Saturday took a hit. Numbers dropped from a sale profit of $15 billion to under $13 billion this year. This decrease is said to be due to companies like Amazon and Walmart, which thrived over the weekend.
CNBC reports that only 70% of Americans know about Small Business Saturday, but a mere 58% went out on the holiday.
“A state-by-state breakdown shows the most popular small businesses visited on the day were restaurants, bars and pubs (41%), followed by clothing and accessories stores (24%), food stores (23%) and coffee shops (22%),” said reporter Kate Rogers from CNBC.
The “Amazon effect” is a term that is being used to describe how Amazon has dominated the book industry causing many small local shops and some bigger names to close.
Forbes published an article in October of 2015 about local pet stores and other local business. This article involved a pet store owner who talks about the fact that pet supplies can be purchased for cheaper on Amazon and websites like it.
A small business owner, David Moore, says that Amazon is able to sell the products for much less than him because of the cost and markup that small businesses need to put on items to make a profit. However, according to this article, the thing that will keep many local businesses running is creating a connection with their customers and having the expertise to aide in the shopping process.
“They [small businesses] need to create value for interaction, for humans to be with humans” said Michael Grandchamp, Associate Vice President for finance at Salve Regina.
Although Small Business Saturday this year shows a declining interest in the public and shopping local, this does not mean that Amazon will be putting these family companies out of business in the near future.
Brett Wilkes
Broadcast Script:
| Studio (8 seconds)
CG (Amazon the Big winner this Holiday Weekend) |
Our top story in business tonight: Amazon made over six point six billion dollars this year over Thanksgiving weekend. |
| (11 seconds)
B-roll (Amazon shipping station showing packages being prepared to be delivered) VO |
This was a record breaking weekend for the online company as they received over sixty-four million orders, and their numbers went up by sixteen and a half percent from last years Thanksgiving weekend. |
| (20 seconds)
B-roll (Shoppers going to the mall and shopping on Black Friday) VO |
With Amazon dominating the sales industry during the busiest shopping weekend of the year, it seems that Small Business Saturday was overshadowed. With raising concern over the state of small businesses, Small Business Saturday was developed as a way to offset Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is typically dominated by large corporations like Amazon. |
| (19 seconds)
B-roll (Small businesses and the business they have on a usual day) |
Unlike Cyber Monday and Black Friday, only seventy percent of Americans know about Small Business Saturday, and out of that percentage, fifty-eight percent went out on the holiday according to a CNBC report . Many feel as though Small Business Saturday only provides a little assistance for small businesses. |
| (5 seconds)
SOT CG (Justin Batista, Junior student at Salve Regina University) |
“I don’t think it offsets it, but I definitely helps just a little bit.” |
| Studio (6 seconds) | Small business owners themselves have begun to worry as these larger businesses threaten them. |
| (28 seconds)
SOT CG (Curt Wilkes owner of Wilkes Deli) |
“Small businesses are a dying breed, they are going to be eliminated eventually. Big business has definitely taken over because they do everything now. Look at Home Depot and Lowes, they took out the hardware stores. Ma and Pa like stores are good in areas where it’s hard to find big businesses around, but you see these big businesses pretty much everywhere, and the little guys can’t survive cause they just can’t compete.” |
| (9 Seconds)
B-roll (Video of the outside of a small business) VO |
While some small businesses owners are concerned as to how long they may be able to do business, some experts believe that small business will never die away. |
| (23 seconds)
SOT CG (Michael Grandchamp Associate VP for Finance at Salve Regina University) |
“I’m not sure they’ll ever run out, I think that small businesses need to work on niche products, so developing niches, but also developing an experience for the shopper. They have to create value with the interaction for humans to be with humans because a lot of time there is very little value in interactions when buying from the big companies like Amazon.” |
| Studio (15 seconds) | With the state of small businesses in a fragile state right now, it will be interesting to see how future holiday weekends shape up, and whether this trend of large business success will continue. For more on this story please check our website for salve news I’m Brett Wilkes |
Radio Script:
After everybody had finished sleeping off all of the turkey they ate over Thanksgiving break the students and faculty of Salve Regina University were asked to discuss how Amazon impacted the businesses on Small Business Saturday.
“Yes I am aware …”
That is freshman Salve student Marco Mongelli who participates in small business saturday with his mother. Others like Michael Grandchamp the Associate VP for Finance at Salve Regina University believe that Small Business Saturday is not an effective way for small businesses to try and compete with amazon during the holiday weekend.
“I would say it operates as … “
Grandchamp also believes that small businesses are dependent on companies like amazon but that it isn’t always a beneficial partnership.
“From a number of different perspectives…”
Small Business owner Curt Wilkes believes that many people don’t really pay attention to Small Business Saturday.
“Ummmm I don’t know if…”
Curt Wilkes also believes that big businesses are greatly hurting small businesses because they can offer more at cheaper prices.
“Ohh they definitely due…”
Many believe that Amazon, along with other big businesses in corporate America, are hurting smaller businesses during busy shopping weekends like this past holiday weekend. For Salve News I’m Brett Wilkes
PR Release
Maggie Johnston
News Release
410 Terry Ave
Seattle, WA 98109
Contact: Maggie Johnston 206-266-1000 (office)
Public Relations Coordinator 123 Elm Street
Suite 132
Seattle, WA 98109
November 28, 2017 For Immediate Release
Sales surpass $6 billion this past holiday weekend, making it the most successful Cyber Monday yet for Amazon.
Prime Day, which used to be Amazon’s biggest day of shopping, has been
officially overthrown by Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday sales have reached $6.6 billion, which is an increase of 16.5% from
last year’s post-Thanksgiving spending.
Small businesses, according to Michael Grandchamp, depend on Amazon as a supplier although it is not always beneficial for them [small business.]
Best sellers this year included the Fire TV Stick, the Echo Dot, and Alexa devices.
The increase in sales led to an increase in stock by 0.8% after just one day. Shares have now hit a record high of $1,213.41 per share.
Compared to last year, consumers planned to spend more this Black Friday and Cyber
Monday. An average of $743 spent on shopping this year is an increase of 47%, compared to last year’s average of $505 according to RetailMeNot.
CEO and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth has consequently increased to $100.2
billion and is the only billionaire with a twelve-digit dollar amount. He remains the richest man in the world.
About Amazon
Founded and owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor
focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. For more information, visit http://www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
Brendan Kelly Storify
https://storify.com/Brendank1/amazon-shattering-black-friday-records
WORKS CITED
Altman, Ian. “Is Amazon Killing Small Businesses?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 27 Oct. 2015,
www.forbes.com/sites/ianaltman/2015/10/27/what-amazon-is-doing-to-small-businesses/#11497e8c52d4.
Rogers, Kate. “Small Business Saturday Sales Take a Slight Dip.” CNBC, CNBC, 27 Nov. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/11/27/small-business-saturday-sales-down-for-2017.html.
Perez, Sarah. “Cyber Monday Topped Prime Day to Become Amazon’s Biggest Shopping Day Ever.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 29 Nov. 2017, techcrunch.com/2017/11/29/cyber-monday-topped-prime-day-to-become-amazons-biggest-shopping-day-ever.
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