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Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are cool. But for us, Small Business Saturday provides a moment for up-and-coming entrepreneurs and business owners to showcase incredible products.

Wedged right in the middle of the chaotic launch of the holiday shopping season, it’s a call to support small businesses making great products and delivering great services. We love it so much because we know the hardworking people behind these small businesses appreciate our support more than you could possibly imagine.

You may not always look back fondly at the time back in 2007 when you accidentally stepped on four people at midnight on Black Friday while sprinting through the mall to get that super-popular, must-have thing that you’ve already forgotten about. 

But you always feel good about shopping small on Small Business Saturday.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Ironically, Small Business Saturday was founded by one of the largest businesses out there. 

In November 2010, during the height of a major economic recession, American Express launched a campaign encouraging shoppers to consider patronizing small businesses as they checked off items from their holiday shopping lists. 

The campaign resonated with Americans from coast to coast. By 2011, the United States Small Business Administration had signed on to promote it. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution officially designating the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday.

The momentum has carried on for more than a decade now.

Why?

Because small businesses are the heart of our economy and our country. And because, as consumers, we love to support enthusiastic entrepreneurs and their teams as they chase their dreams.

Is Fire Dept. Coffee a Small Business?

If you’re shopping with Fire Dept. Coffee this holiday season, know that you are supporting a small, veteran-owned business based in Rockford, Illinois. Fire Dept. Coffee began with just our founder, Luke Schneider, and his wife, Kate, roasting coffee for their friends and family shortly after Luke left the Navy to pursue a career as a professional firefighter.

As they say, things escalated quickly.

Now Fire Dept. Coffee has grown beyond anything we could have imagined back in 2016. Our coffee is available online and shipped all across the country. We’re showing up in more grocery stores and convenience stores all the time.

Yet, we are still a small business. Fire Dept. Coffee employs around 50 full-time employees, along with our part-time crew, many of whom are also working firefighters and other first responders. 

We appreciate everyone who supports Fire Dept. Coffee because they feel good about shopping with small businesses, especially small-batch coffee roasters. If that encourages you to give us a try, we’re all for it.

Fire Department Coffee is not only a small business, but through the Fire Department Coffee Charitable Foundation, your purchase helps to give back to sick and injured first responders.

If you browse our collection of high-quality, small-batch coffee roasts, we know you’ll find something to enjoy. If you’re shopping for someone else, we’ve got special gift bundles and coffee subscriptions that are perfect for the holiday season.

And when the holidays are over, we hope to keep you and your friends as customers because you love our coffee. That’s what it’s all about. We take great pride in creating rich, bold, easy-drinking roasts for coffee lovers whose preferences span the full spectrum of coffees. 

Half the fun is finding your favorite.

The Best Ways to Support Small Businesses

Whether it’s Fire Dept. Coffee or any other small business in any other industry, there are a lot of ways you can show your support on Small Business Saturday and all year long.

The obvious way is to purchase that small business’ product or services. That’s what moves the needle most, and small businesses always want to share their products with as many people as possible.

Of course, as a consumer, you have even more ways to help small businesses grow.

You can buy products as a gift and share with friends or family during the holiday season. 

You can leave a positive review on the company’s website or through Google, Yelp or any of the other services that shoppers frequently use to learn more about a business.

You can post about your favorite small businesses on your own social media accounts, encouraging others to check them out. We can’t tell you how many people have discovered Fire Dept. Coffee — and become big fans — because their friends have helped spread the word on social media.

We can promise you that anything you do will be greatly appreciated. Small businesses are about building communities. Find something you love and share it with a friend, keep the chain going and keep small businesses like ours growing.

So if you’re shopping small on Small Business Saturday, we thank you. We’re glad to have you in our coffee community!

We honor them always. Respect them always. Celebrate them every single day of the year.

It’s no secret that every member of the crew at Fire Dept. Coffee has a soft spot in their heart for first responders. Many of us have been first responders. Some still are. The rest of us are eternally grateful for all that first responders do in service of others.

October 28 is National First Responders Day, which means it’s an opportunity for every American to join us in raising our mugs high to the men and women who have dedicated their careers — or their valuable free time — to being there when their community needs them most.

First responders are firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, police officers and others who are trained to be first on the scene of an emergency. They don’t always know what they’ll find, so they are ready for anything.

These are the types of people we like to be around.

How to Thank a First Responder

The first thing to understand about first responders is they don’t do what they do for recognition. Not a single one of them. They do it because it’s in their blood. It’s who they are. It’s not because they are fearless, but rather, because they are selfless.

Of course, it’s natural to want to recognize them and thank them for all they do — especially today.

So the second thing to know about first responders is that they will rarely turn down a free cup of coffee. Also baked goods are generally well received.

At Fire Dept. Coffee, we want to make sure that we are always giving back to the first responder community and that we’re giving our customers an opportunity to do the same. We created the Fire Dept. Coffee Foundation to direct a portion of net profits to benefit ill or injured first responders as well as the organizations that support them.

Some of the funds we’ve raised with the help of our customers has gone to benefit the North Carolina First Responder Peer Support Team or Next Rung, both of which help first responders combat mental health issues with the benefit of peer counseling and professional counseling.

We’ve also worked with the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association to support the the Mark Virag Memorial Cancer Fund, created to honor the NJFMBA’s former sergeant at arms, who lost his battle with cancer in 2015.

That’s just a small fraction of what our foundation has done so far, and it’s because like all the first responders out there, “Service” is one of our core values.

A National Celebration of First Responders

It is a special thing to see first responders receive a national day in their honor. And it’s a relatively new recognition.

A resolution was first introduced in Congress in 2017 for a national day of recognition. A bipartisan resolution finally passed the U.S. Senate in 2019. At the time there were more than 4.6 million people working as professional or volunteer first responders across the country.

That’s an incredible number.

Shortly after National First Responders Day in 2019, the COVID pandemic arrived in the United States and tested first responders and frontline health care professionals like never before.

As usual, they have risen to the challenge over the years that have followed.