The first-ever “Buy MBE Day” on Saturday, September 19, 2020, encourages you to infuse more dollars into minority-owned businesses. (MBDA)
On Saturday, September 19, 2020, a nationwide effort encourages corporations, government buyers, and individuals to purchase goods and services from their local minority-owned business community.
The campaign, announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), takes place on the final day of National Minority Enterprise Development Week (MED Week). For the first time since the inception of National MED Week in 1983, the week-long commemoration of minority businesses has been a virtual experience; 2020 National MED Week launched on Sunday, September 13, 2020 and runs through Saturday, September 19, 2020.
The inaugural Buy MBE Day promotes minority business enterprises in major cities across the nation.
“As communities across the United States continue on the path toward recovery and our economy strengthens, we anticipate ‘Buy MBE Day’ will encourage consumers and businesses to support minority-owned firms on this day and beyond, spurring investment in local economies,” said Secretary Wilbur Ross, Department of Commerce.
One of the main questions the MBDA gets asked is, “How do we help?”
“The answer is to do what we can to infuse more dollars into minority-owned businesses,” said David J. Byrd, MBDA National Director. “That is the foundational premise of what ‘Buy MBE Day’ is all about. There are also other ways to demonstrate support, such as social media posts celebrating minority-owned businesses, displaying ‘Buy MBE Day’ signs in storefronts and home, and using local listings of minority-owned companies to discover new stores, restaurants, and service providers.”
The Founders and Publishers of Native Business, Gary Davis (Cherokee Nation) and Carmen Davis (Makah Tribe) are vocal advocates for buying goods and services from minority and particularly Indigenous-owned businesses. “We are far more powerful when we are united, supporting and encouraging one another as Native entrepreneurs, and as Native people buying the goods and services of other Native people,” Carmen Davis has said.
