Black-owned businesses experienced a great sales surge on Blackout Day.

Following the ongoing movement against the brutal killings of blacks in the United States and the racial injustice leveled against blacks in the state, activists, and allies introduce Blackout Day as a day that the Black Americans and other blacks in the United State would be forbidden to spend any money. If there is any need to spend, it would only be on black-owned businesses. 

According to CNN, Blackout Day was created by activist Calvin Martyr and held on July 7th. Martyr “spent the last two months promoting the campaign after raising the idea in a video that has been shared thousands of times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.”

“Martyr has likened the initiative to the year-long Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 when Black Alabamans who were legally required to sit at the back of city buses refused to pay to ride them until they were allowed to sit wherever they wanted.

‘The only way we’re going to get change is when they fear to hurt us like we fear to hurt them,' Martyr said in a May video introducing the idea.”

Reasons For Black Out Day

Investingport's research revealed that Black Americans have contributed immensely to the United State economy, especially when it comes to spending on consumer goods. In 2016, African-American buying power was above $1 trillion and is expected to reach $1.5 by 2021. Added to this, if not for the patronage of blacks, some of the nation's biggest companies would not have been as successful as they are today. In fact, Adidas acknowledged this in one of their posts on Twitter that its success "would be nothing without Black athletes, Black artists, Black employees, and Black consumers."

However, it is quite unfortunate that as vital as the blacks are to the economy of the states, they suffer all kinds of marginalization and discrimination. 

Added to this, blacks are relegated in terms of the state economy, as such many black businesses suffer great loss. 

Also, our research revealed that black-owned businesses are the worst hit since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The number of active business owners nationwide fell by 22% from February through April, but Black-owned businesses experienced a 41% drop in working business owners.

It is against this background that Martyr argued that when black Americans refuse to buy things for one day it will show the nation the importance of black dollar to their growth and development. The movement urges all blacks across the state to either withheld spending for the entire day or spends only on black-owned businesses.

Effect Of Black Out Day On Black-owned Business

Since the Black Out Day is set aside as a day not to spend on all other business except the black-owned businesses, black-owned business owners reported a great surge in their sales. Nile, an online community that connects shoppers to black brands revealed that it experiences more than 200% in its user base on Tuesday. 

Khadijah Robinson, the founder of Nile said she launched the website on March 1st in order to support and promote black-owned businesses.  

She revealed that she currently has almost 2000 black brands on the platform. Also, Nile Robinson reported that the users on the platform move from 4000 in May to 19000 in June. 

“We are seeing an influx of interest, and there’s been a growing interest in the movement to support Black businesses for several years,” she said. “People are really trying to be more conscientious with their shopping and support these small, minority, and women-owned brands, and finding our tool really useful in terms of facilitating that.”

Among the companies listed on the Nile is Mike D’s BBQ, which is based in Durham, North Carolina, and owned by Michael De Los Santos. Michael said on Tuesday, which is the blackout day, he offered discounts to anyone who spends $20 or more on his site and saw an increase of almost 300% of his average daily sales.

"Anytime you can bring in new customers to Black-owned businesses, it’s a great thing,” he said. “And what I hope is that it isn’t just a one-time thing, where folks at this moment are going to support Black businesses right now because it’s popular. I hope it’s a sustainable thing, where folks can adjust their buying habits for the long haul.”