Afro-Centric Business Sales Boom After Christmas
WAVE Community Newspapers, Cynthia E. Griffin, Posted: Jan 09, 2004
If she hadn’t already seen signs of an economic turnaround, Aminah Muhammad might be more worried about the fate of her nine-month-old clothing store on downtown Inglewood's Market Street.
While the majority of African-American entrepreneurs, like retailers in general, expect to make as much as 50 percent of their sales during the Christmas season, a small but growing number have also begun to find that sales in February and late January are strong as well.
“Christmas sales were actually very slow, but with the start of Kwanzaa, I’ve seen a 200 percent difference,” said the owner of Queen Aminah’s Clothing, which sells Afro-centric women’s wear and accessories.
And she expects that uptick in sales to continue as Black History Month approaches.
An informal nationwide e-mail survey conducted by the Alliance of African Cultural Enterprises found that about 65 percent of its members who responded pegged the Christmas/Kwanzaa period as their best selling time. About 12 percent identified Black History Month as their hottest sales month.
That’s exactly what Ursaline Bryant, manager of the African Marketplace shop in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, expects to happen.
“That’s been the case, I noticed about three years ago,” she said. “It usually starts at the end of January. They come in and buy clothes for church, for children’s programs.”
Bryant estimates that sales jump about 50 percent during February.
Muhammad also expects women from local churches to come in looking for garments to wear.
“That’s where the money is,” she said. “Women from the churches. Their pastors want them to dress in African clothing for Black History Month, and they come here.
“A lot of them are conscious that they should spend money in black-owned businesses,” added the entrepreneur, who believes many of her sales come because people recognize her store as an African shop.
Muhammad Nassardeen, founder of Recycling Black Dollars, is well aware of African-Americans’ proclivity to shop black during Black History Month.
“People are in a black place mentally,” said Nassardeen. “They’re thinking about the community. That is the most opportune time for black businesses to advertise because black people as a consumer base are thinking about black during February more so than any other time of the year.”
Nassardeen can measure just how tuned in people are by how well his switch bank campaign goes.
“Every month for the last eight years, we have designated February as change bank month, and we encourage everyone to support black-owned banks by switching or making deposits,” said the Recycling Black Dollars founder, who said last year the number of accounts opened at OneUnited Bank, for example, tripled during February.
Overall since the campaign started, he said about $21 million has been moved into black banks, and most of that has come from individual depositors.
Although she believes Black History Month and the power of black economics should be celebrated 365 days a year, Muhammad recognizes the heightened sensitivity February brings.
“Because we have so many challenges in our lifestyle, [Black History Month] is a time to reflect. It’s a good way to alert people that we should be conscious of our history and culture and all of our accomplishments,” Muhammad said.
She added that it’s also a time for people to “remember that where our money flows will determine what happens in our society and our culture. If it’s spent in black businesses, they will recycle it back into the black community. When we spend with other nationalities, they take it to their country and culture and promote that.”
NCM Coverage: Business
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