Downtown Home & Garden owner Mark Hodesh shows a Michigan-made Stormy Kromer wool coat available in his store.

Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home & Garden in Ann Arbor, was vaguely aware that small businesses were getting some special attention on Saturday.

Not that the national observance of Small Business Saturday affected sales much in his store on South Ashley Street. After all, Hodesh said,  the "buy local' movement has been going on for five years.

“It’s huge,” said Hodesh, who first became involved with the business in 1975. “Sometimes the only qualifier is what’s made locally.”

He said the store features Stormy Kromer coats and hats, which are made in Ironwood. Some toys that he stocks are also made in the state. And of course Christmas trees are locally grown.

But the definition of “local” is different for everybody, he said. Sometimes, merely being made in the United States is enough to qualify. He carries a high-quality line of kitchen whisks from a West Coast company, and it “took a long time to reel them in and figure that out.”

Nevertheless, Hodesh said that “any time that (locally produced aspect) gets into the conversation, it adds value to the product.”

Small Business Saturday was promoted by American Express, which pledged to donate $1 up to a total of $1 million to Girls Inc. for every person who “liked” the event on Facebook.

While that effort was Web-oriented, what Ralph Lydic likes the personal touch of shopping in local stores and getting to know the business owner.

Lydic, who was browsing in Downtown Home & Garden, grew up in the Southwest, where he was used to interpersonal contact. It was something he found missing while gaining his academic credentials in large Eastern cities.

Lydic, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Michigan Medical Center, moved to Ann Arbor a decade ago.

“Those of us who went on this academic quest gave up the ability to live where we want,” he said, pointing to the need to go where positions are open. “Meeting local merchants is very important for us.”

Susan Monroe, owner of Three Chairs Co., sits in a Herman Miller lounge chair.

Across the street, Susan Monroe, owner of Three Chairs Company, said customers often ask where the store’s furniture and accessories are made.

Three Chairs, which opened in 2000, features Herman Miller chairs made in Zeeland. Monroe estimated that 95 percent of her stock is made in the United States and said customers prefer not only American-made items but also locally owned businesses.

Three Chairs also has a showroom in Holland but recently closed its third location, in Carmel, Ind.

“In the real downturn of the economy in the past couple of years, I think there’s been a resurgence of people coming downtown because they were afraid small businesses would go away,” Monroe said, noting that she hadn’t been aware of Small Business Saturday.

Lately she has seen increased shopping traffic and better sales, and she hears manufacturers’ representatives saying the outlook is slowly improving.

“Things are better than they have been,'' she said. "Things are looking up.”