H eadlines
Marlyn Schiff Jewelers will
offer significant deals this Small
Business Saturday on Nov. 27.

Courtesy of Marlyn Schiff
Tina Dixon Spence will sell
her children’s clothing line and
accessories at the Made in
Philadelphia Holiday Market in
Dilworth Park.

Danielle Abrams has been able
to dodge supply chain problems by
using upcycled materials from her
customers. is going to take care of itself
downtown,” she said. “I’m not
putting all my eggs in that basket,
as I have in previous years.”
For Dixon Spence, like
many other small business
owners, community is key.

Seventy-three percent of Dixon
Spence’s customers are repeat
customers. Building strong
relationships is the primary
advantage local businesses
have over their large corporate
competition, she said.

“We’re really figuring out
how to service anybody who
possibly needs it, and it’s very
personalized,” Schiff said.

Over the pandemic, Schiff
and her colleagues have offered
FaceTime appointments with
customers and have expanded
their shipping operations. On
Small Business Saturday, they
plan to set up outdoor heaters
for those waiting in line outside
and provide snacks, water and
places to sit.

And with fewer degrees
of separation between their
suppliers and customers, small
businesses have dodged some
of the supply chain disrup-
tions that have afflicted large
retailers. “That’s t he beaut y of
Courtesy of Buddha Babe
of the Buddha Babe brick-and-
mortar store, which opened
on Small Business Saturday
in 2020 and survived despite
the pandemic. Buddha Babe
has a kiosk at the Made in
Philadelphia Holiday Market
at Dilworth Park, where she
will be every night for the next
six weeks.

On Small Business Saturday,
however, she will be at her
storefront, where she will toast
to Buddha Babe’s success with
community members.

“It’s going to be more of a
celebration and not a push for
sales because I feel like the revenue
Courtesy of Danielle Abrams
shopping from a small artist,”
Abrams said. “I’m not really
reliant on anything sitting on a
boat in the middle of the ocean
that isn’t going to get to the
port on time.”
Because Abrams sources
materials directly from her
customers, such as using the
breaking glass from a Jewish
wedding to create a mosaic
piece, she doesn’t have to worry
about telling her customers she
doesn’t have something in stock.

Schiff has managed the
supply chain without issue.

Because most of her business
is wholesale, she has plenty in
stock at her brick-and-mortar
store. Though Dixon Spence has
had trouble sourcing fabric
for next season’s designs, it
shouldn’t impact Buddha Babe
for the rest of the year.

The businesses
also have power in numbers,
having supported each other
throughout the pandemic.

“You do what you do well,
and you support your neigh-
bors and help them do what
they do well and, as a result,
all of you will flourish,” said
Elizabeth Bloom, owner of
home goods store Home
Grown in Haverford.

Bloom and Schiff are neigh-
bors — they “share a parking
lot” — and periodically partner
with one another and other
Haverford businesses for events.

Earlier this month, the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia hosted a “Shop and
Schmooze” event, where shoppers
from Marlyn Schiff Jewelers and
Home Grown received discounts
and gave donations to the Jewish
Federation. Schiff convinced a handful
of neighborhood shops to stick
large rainbow decals in their
windows, a symbol of unity.

Schiff recently was honored
by the New York-based
Accessories Council as an
Accessories Industry Hero at the
2021 ACE Awards. She donated
more than 50,000 surgical
masks to hospitals and jewelry
to essential workers via her Fill a
Box, Send a Smile program.

During the height of the
pandemic, Schiff said that it
was as if society had “turned
back to the old days where
it was neighborhood living.”
Small businesses were able to
connect with customers in a
way that transcended just the
exchange of money for goods
and services.

“It made you feel like you
belonged,” Schiff said. l
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